Olympiad Maths Prep

Track / Stage 5 / 52 of 400 #652 of 2000

Problem 652

AIME late
Combinatorics Difficulty 5.2 Find the answer

11. (16 points) Let A(n,k)A(n, k) denote the number of kk-element subsets of the set {1,2\{1,2, ,n}\cdots, n\} that do not contain consecutive integers. Find A(n,k)A(n, k).

Official solution

11. Clearly, A(n,1)=nA(n, 1)=n.

When kZ+,k2k \in \mathbf{Z}_{+}, k \geqslant 2, and n<2k1n<2 k-1,
A(n,k)=0 A(n, k)=0 \text {. }

When kZ+,k2k \in \mathbf{Z}_{+}, k \geqslant 2, and n2k1n \geqslant 2 k-1, let {a1,a2,,ak}\left\{a_{1}, a_{2}, \cdots, a_{k}\right\} be a kk-element subset of {1,2,,n}\{1,2, \cdots, n\} that does not contain consecutive integers, and a1<a2<<aka_{1}<a_{2}<\cdots<a_{k}.

Then {a1,a21,a32,,ak(k1)}\left\{a_{1}, a_{2}-1, a_{3}-2, \cdots, a_{k}-(k-1)\right\} is a kk-element subset of {1,2,,n(k1)}\{1,2, \cdots, n-(k-1)\}.

Since {a1,a2,,ak}\left\{a_{1}, a_{2}, \cdots, a_{k}\right\} and {a1,a21,a32,,ak(k1)}\left\{a_{1}, a_{2}-1, a_{3}-2, \cdots, a_{k}-(k-1)\right\} are in one-to-one correspondence, we have A(n,k)=Cn(k1)kA(n, k)=\mathrm{C}_{n-(k-1)}^{k}.

Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic, difficulty and ordering added by this site.