Question 11

NUMERICALMEDIUM

The number of ways to distribute 10 identical red pens and 14 identical blue pens among four persons such that each person gets 6 pens, is _____________.

Correct Answer: 206

Detailed Solution

Let rir_i be the number of red pens given to the ii-th person. Since each person gets a total of 6 pens, the number of blue pens for the ii-th person is bi=6−rib_i = 6 - r_i. Because bi≥0b_i \ge 0, we must have 0≤ri≤60 \le r_i \le 6. The total number of red pens is 10, so ∑i=14ri=10\sum_{i=1}^4 r_i = 10. The number of ways is the coefficient of x10x^{10} in (1+x+x2+x3+x4+x5+x6)4(1 + x + x^2 + x^3 + x^4 + x^5 + x^6)^4. (1+x+⋯+x6)4=(1−x71−x)4=(1−x7)4(1−x)−4(1 + x + \dots + x^6)^4 = (\frac{1-x^7}{1-x})^4 = (1-x^7)^4 (1-x)^{-4}. Coeff of x10x^{10} in (1−4x7+6x14−… )∑k=0∞(k+33)xk(1 - 4x^7 + 6x^{14} - \dots) \sum_{k=0}^{\infty} \binom{k+3}{3} x^k: =1×(10+33)−4×(3+33)=(133)−4(63)=286−4(20)=286−80=206= 1 \times \binom{10+3}{3} - 4 \times \binom{3+3}{3} = \binom{13}{3} - 4\binom{6}{3} = 286 - 4(20) = 286 - 80 = 206.

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