MATH 3160, SPRING 2013

HOMEWORK #1—SOLUTIONS

JOHANNA FRANKLIN

This assignment will be due on Wednesday, January 30 at the beginning of class. Remember to
show your reasoning and name the classmates you worked with. Answers without work shown will
receive almost minimal credit. (I realize that it’s very hard to show much work for the problems
this week. You should at least write a sentence indicating why the calculation you’re using will
give the correct answer.)

(1) A tire manufacturer wants to test four different types of tires on three different types of
roads at five different speeds. How many tests are required?
Solution. Since each type of tire has to be tested on each kind of road at each speed, we
apply the generalized basic principle of counting and see that 4 · 3 · 5 = 60 tests are required.
(2) If sixteen horses race in the Kentucky Derby, how many possible results are there for win,
place, and show (first, second, and third place)?
Solution. We have 3 places to fill and 16 horses to fill them. Any of the 16 could take first
place, any of the remaining 15 could take second place, and any of the remaining 14 could
take third place, so there are 16 · 15 · 14 possible results.
(3) Suppose you have 12 friends but can only invite 7 to a party due to space limitations.
(a) Suppose that two of your friends, Alice and Bob, are feuding and neither will go to
the party if the other one is there. How many possible guest lists can you make if you
decide to spare yourself drama and invite at most one of them?
Solution. If you invite Alice and not Bob, you
have to choose 6 other guests out of
the remaining 10 friends, so there will be 10 6 possible guest lists. If you invite Bob
10


but not Alice, the situation is symmetric, so there will be an additional 6 possible
guest lists. Finally, if you decide not to invite either

of them, you have to choose 7
10
people out of the remaining 10, so there will be 7 more possible guest lists. Since
all of these possibilities are mutually exclusive, there will be 10 10 10




6 + 6 + 7 total
possibilities.
(b) Suppose that two of your friends have just started dating and refuse to go anywhere
without each other. How many possible guest lists can you make that either include
both of them or neither of them?
Solution. If you include both friends, you will have to choose 5 others out of the
remaining 10, so you will have 10


5 possible guest lists. If you include neither, you will
have to choose 7 out of the remaining 10, so you will have 10


7 more possible guest

1
2 FRANKLIN

10 10



lists. Since these possibilities are mutually exclusive, there will be 5 + 7 possible
lists.
(4) A basketball team has 5 players more than 6 feet tall and 6 who are less than 6 feet. How
many ways can they have their picture taken if the 5 taller players stand in a row behind
the 6 shorter players who are sitting on a row of chairs?
Solution. The 5 taller players can be arranged in 5! ways, and the 6 shorter players can
be arranged in 6! ways. Since each of the ways to arrange the taller players can be paired
with each way to arrange the shorter players, there are 5! · 6! possible ways they can have
their picture taken.
(5) The College University football team played eight games last fall. They won three games,
lost three games, and tied the other two. How many possible sequences of results (such as
WWWLLLTT) are there?
Solution. We must calculate the number of 8-letter
sequences consisting of 3 Ws, 3Ls, and
2 Ts. We first choose the positions of the 3 Ws: 83 . Then we choose 3 of the remaining
5 positions for the Ls: 53 . Finally, we place the 2 Ts in the two remaining spots: 22 .

This gives us 83 · 53 · 22 = 3!3!2!

8!




possible sequences of results (or we could write it as the
8


multinomial coefficient 3,3,2 ).

Suggested problems: Chapter 1 Problems: 1-5, 9-11, 15, 27-28; Chapter 1 Theoret-
ical Exercises: 8-10