Find the number of triples of sets such that: (a) . (b) . (c) . Here, denotes the number of elements in the set .
Solution
We consider the sets drawn in a Venn diagram. Note that each element that is in at least one of the subsets lies in these seven possible spaces. We split by casework, with the cases based on . Case 1: Because we are given that , we must have . But we also know that , so . Similarly, . Since these regions are distinguishable, we multiply through and obtain ways. Case 2: In this case, we can immediately deduce . From this, it follows that , and similarly, . All seven regions each contain one integer, so there are a total of ways. Case 3: Because , we must have . Since , we immediately see that . Similarly, . The number of ways to fill is . This clearly exhausts all the possibilities, so adding gives us ways.
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