Maths Olympiad Prep

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Combinatorics Difficulty 5.1 AIME, harder Find the answer

Compute the number of functions f:{1,2,,9}{1,2,,9}f:\{1,2, \ldots, 9\} \rightarrow\{1,2, \ldots, 9\} which satisfy f(f(f(f(f(x)))))=f(f(f(f(f(x)))))= xx for each x{1,2,,9}x \in\{1,2, \ldots, 9\}.

A number or a short expression. Spacing and $ signs are ignored.

Solution

All cycles lengths in the permutation must divide 5 , which is a prime number. Either f(x)=xf(x)=x for all xx, or there exists exactly one permutation cycle of length 5 . In the latter case, there are (95)\binom{9}{5} ways to choose which numbers are in the cycle and 4 ! ways to create the cycle. The answer is thus 1+(95)4!=30251+\binom{9}{5} \cdot 4!=3025.

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