5.

2: Recursively Defined Sequences

A recursive definition fits in hand-in-hand with the Mathematical Principle of Induction. In the
recursive definition

21=2
2

and, for

2k+1 =2 2k , it is explicitly defined that

k 1 ,

has been defined for

n=k , can be defined for

when

n=1 , assuming

n=k +1 .

An expression that is naturally defined recursively is

0 !=1 and, for

2n

n! :

k 0 ,

( k +1 ) !=( k +1 ) k ! . This follows by the Mathematical Principle of

Induction that n ! has been defined for every n 0 .
Sequences are numbers that are often defined using this concept of recursion. A sequence is a
function with a domain in an infinite set of integers (often in N) and a range in a set of real
numbers. Since its domain is countable, we can describe a sequence by simply listing its range,
for instance a sequence that is the function

f : R

defined by

f ( n )=n2

is written by the

list 1,4,9,16 These numbers in the list are called the terms of the sequence.
The sequence 2, 4, 8, 16, can be defined recursively like this:

a1=2 and, for

k 1 ,

ak +1=2 ak

Notice that each term in a sequence beyond the first is defined in terms of the previous term.
This is called a recurrence relation, where the first term is called an initial condition.
Recurrence relations are meant to be solved, meaning that, for example, the recurrence
relation defined above has a solution of

an =2

See Problem 11 and 12, pg. 161

An arithmetic sequence is when you add the same fixed number called the common difference
to the previous one. More specifically, the arithmetic sequence with first term
difference

a1=a

k 1 ,

ak +1=a k + d . Thus the general arithmetic sequence takes the form

a , a+ d , a+2 d , a+3 d ,, and it is easy to see that for

and common

is the sequence defined by

and, for

sequence is

n 1 , the nth term of the

an =a+ ( n1 ) d .

The sum of n terms of the arithmetic sequence with first term a and common difference d
is

n
S= [2 a+ ( n1 ) d ]
2

A geometric sequence is a sequence by which each term is determined by multiplying the

previous term by a fixed number called the common ratio. More specifically, the geometric
sequence with first term a and common ratio r is the sequence defined by

a1=a

and, for

k 1 ,

a r3 ,

ak +1=r a k . Thus the general geometric sequence takes the form

a r 4 ,, with the nth term being

an =a r

a , ar , a r 2 ,

n1

The sum of n terms of the geometric sequence is

a ( 1r n )
S=
1r

See Problem 17, pg. 163

The Fibonacci sequence is a famous sequence that calculates how many rabbits will produce
offspring after n months. It is a recursive sequence defined by

f 1 =1 ,

f 2=1 and, for

k 2 ,

f k+1=f k + f k1 .

The nth term in a Fibonacci sequence is the integer closest to the number

1 1+ 5
5 2

5.3: Solving Recurrence Relations; The Characteristic Polynomial

There is a definite procedure for solving most of the recurrence relations you will find. This
procedure is defined by

an =r an1 +s an2 +f ( n)

Here,

and

are constants and

f (n) is some function of

n . This equation is

called a second-order linear recurrence relation with constant coefficients. In a

nutshell, this means that the equation defines

an

as a function of the two terms

an1

preceding it (hence second order), and that the terms

and

an2

appear by

themselves to the first power (hence linear, and with constant coefficients.

f ( n )=0 , the relation is called homogeneous.

If

For example,
o
o

an =5 an16 a n2+ n has

an =3 an1

r=5 ,

is homogeneous with

s=6 , and
r=3

A homogenous recurrence relation an =r an1 +s an2

and

f ( n )=n

s=0

can be rewritten in the form

an r an1s an 2 =0 . This is associated with the quadratic polynomial

x 2rxs , which is

called the characteristic polynomial. Its roots are called the characteristic roots of the
recurrence relation.

For example, the recurrence relation

2

x 5 x+6

an =5 an16 a n2 has the characteristic polynomial

with characteristic roots 2 and 3.

In general, the solution of a homogeneous recurrence relation in the form of

n 2

is

an =
Where

an =r an1 +s an2 ,

x 1 and

c 1 x n1 +c 2 xn2 if x1 x 2
c1 x n+ c 2 n x n if x 1=x 2=x

x 2 are the roots of the polynomial

x rxs

and

c 1 and

c 2 are

constants determined by initial conditions.

See Problem 20, 21 and 22, pg. 171

In regards to recurrence relations that are not homogeneous, that is they contain a

an =p n+ qn

is the general solution to the recurrence relation

an =r an1 +s an2 +f ( n) .

q n is a general solution to the associated homogenous relation

pn

f (n) ,

an =r an1 +s an2

and

is a particular solution to the given recurrence relation, which should have a formula

f (n) . For example, if f (n) is a linear function (exponent of 1), try

a linear function ( a+bn for pn . Initial conditions are constants in q n .
of the same type as

See Problem 23 and 24, pg. 173

6.1: The Principle of Inclusion-Exclusion

Let A and B be subsets of a finite universal set U. Then
a)

| A B|=| A|+|B| A B

b)

| A B| min\{| A|,|B| \}, the minimum of | A| andB

c)

| A B|=| A|| A B||A| B

d)

| Ac|=|U| A

e)

| A B|=| A B|| A B|=| A|+|B|2| A B|=| A B|+ B A

f)

| A B|=| A|B

These relationships can be used to compute complicated subsets like the following:
o Glenys is thinking about registering for data analysis. Of the 100 people who have
registered so far, she discovers that 80 people have their own PDAs and threequarters of the group are men.
a) Estimate the number of women in the course who do not have PDAs. How
large might this number might be? How small?
b) How many of the men registered in this course could conceivably own
PDAs.
o

It is given that

|U |=100,|M |=75, and |P|=80

a) The number of women in the course who do not have PDAs =

M c Pc |( M P )c|=100 M P
o

This continues for the rest of part a and b

The Principle of Inclusion-Exclusion is stated as follows: Given a finite number of finite sets,

A1 , A2, , An ,

the number of elements in the union

A 1 A 2 An

| Ai A j|+ | A i A j A k|+ (1 )n+1 A 1 A2 An

|

i< j<k

A 1 A 2 An |A i|
i

i< j

See Problem 1, 2, and 3, pg. 187-188

is:

6.2: The Addition and Multiplication Rules

If groups of finite sets are pairwise disjoint, that is empty, the formula for the Principle of
Inclusion-Exclusion takes a more simpler form: Given

pairwise disjoint finite sets,

Ai
A 1 , A 2 , , A n , then

| A1 A 2 A n|=

i=1

The Addition Rule is given as follows: The number of ways in which precisely one of a collection
of mutually exclusive events can occur is the sum of the numbers of ways in which each event
can occur.
Events are mutually exclusive if and only if no two of them can occur together.
For example, a student who needs one course to complete her degree decides to take
either computer science or statistics and makes a lists of courses for which she is eligible.
The computer science courses might comprise the set

A 1={CS2602, CS2700, CS2721, CS2800, CS2500 } and the statistics courses the set
A 2={S2510, S2511, S3500} . There are

5+3=8 ways in which this student can register

for a course because two sets here are disjoint: The events register for CS and register
for Statistics are mutually exclusive.
o The addition rule, however, is most often applied in situations where the individual
events (sets) are not specified (unlike above).

See Problem 4, pg. 193

It is observed that if

and

are finite sets, then the Cartesian product

A B

contains

| A|B elements. More generally, if A 1 , A 2 , , A n are finite sets,

A i
n

| A1 A2 A n|=

i=1

The Multiplication Rule is given as follows: The number of ways in which a sequence of events
can occur is the product of the numbers of ways in which each individual event can occur.
For example, suppose that there are five computer science courses and three statistics
courses in which a student is eligible to enroll and that this student wishes to take a
course in each subject. There are

A set of cardinality

contains

5 3=15 ways in which the choice can be made.

2n

subsets (including the empty set and the entire set

itself) demonstrates the multiplication rule:

o

Given objects

a1

through

through

an

a1 , a2 , , an , each subset corresponds to a sequence of choices.

an

can either be in the subset or not in the subset. That is,

can have one of two answers. So thus,

a1

2 2 2=2

See Problem 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10, pg. 194-196

6.3: The Pigeonhole Principle

If

| A|> B , no function f : A B can be one-to-one.

For example, no function { 1,2,3 } {x , y } can be one-to-one.

and

Think of

are finite sets with

as a set of birdhouses,

as a set of pigeons, and

assigns birdhouse to each pigeon. The statement that

as a function that

is not one-to-one is just the

observation that at least two pigeons live in the same house.

Thus, the Pigeonhole Principle is given as follows: If

objects are put into

boxes and

n>m , then at least one box contains two or more of the objects.

For example, within any group of 13 people, there must be at least two who have their
birthdays on the same month.

See Problem 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15, pg. 200-201

The strong form Pigeonhole Principle is given as follows: If

boxes and

n>m , then some box must contains at least

objects are put into

objects.

For example, if there are 44 chairs positioned around five tables in a room, some table
must have at least
o

44
=9 chairs around it.
5

To prove this, we establish the truth of its contrapositive:

Note that

n
n
< +1
m m

and hence

n
n
1<
m
m

because for any real number x,

x x < x+ 1 .

Thus, if a box contains fewer than

n
m

so fewer than

n
=n
m

objects. If all

m objects, then it contains at most

n
1
m

and

boxes are like this, we account for fewer than

objects.

See Problem 17, pg. 202

7.1: Permutations
The solution to many counting a problems involve the product of consecutive integers. This is
often done using the relation

n !=n ( n1 ) ( n2 ) (3)(2)(1) . Scenarios do exist where the range

of consecutive integers must be limited. When that scenario occurs, we use this definition: For
integers

r >0 ,

for

and

r ,

0 r n , the symbol

P(n , r ) is defined by

P ( n ,0 )=1

and,

P ( n ,r )=n ( n1 )( n2 ) (nr +1) .

For example,

P (6,2 )=6 5=30

three factors of

In general

n 1 ,

P ( n ,r )=

find a solution.

(first two factors of

6 ! ) and

P (7,3 )=7 6 5=210 (first

7! )

n!
( nr ) ! . So repeating factors on the top and bottom can be canceled out to

Take this example: How many pairs of dance partners can be selected from a group of 12
women and 20 men?
o Well, the first woman can be paired with any of the 20 men, and the second women
can be paired with any of the remaining 19 men and so on. So we have:
o

P (20,12 ) =

20 !
20 ! 20 19 18 17
=
=
=20 19 18 17 10 9
8 7 6
( 2012 ) ! 8!

A permutation of a set of distinct symbols is an arrangement of them in a line in some order.

For example,

ab

and

ba

are permutations of the symbols

and

b ; 1642, 4126,

and 6241 are permutations of the symbols 1, 2, 4, and 6. These number are also examples
of 4-permutations of the symbols, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 taken four at a time.

n , r n , an r-permutation of n symbols is a
of them, that is, the arrangement of r symbols in a line in some

Therefore, for natural numbers

permutation of

order. The number of

symbols is
o

and

symbols is

n ! . The number of

r -permulations of

P(n , r ) .

For example, there are

3 !=6

permutations of

a , b , c , that is,

abc , acb , bac , bca , cab , and cba .

See Problem 3, 4, 5, 6, pg. 207-208

7.2: Combinations