Stars and Bars with Restriction

I just encountered the stars and bars technique page on Brilliant. https://brilliant.org/assessment/techniques-trainer/stars-and-bars/

The example problem asks How many ordered sets of non-negative integers are there such that $a + b + c + d = 10$

I was wondering, If an upper limit is placed on one or two of the variables, for example if $a<5$ and $b<4$ , then how will the solution change?

#Combinatorics #Advice #Math

Easy Math Editor

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`2 \times 3`	$2 \times 3$
`2^{34}`	$2^{34}$
`a_{i-1}`	$a_{i-1}$
`\frac{2}{3}`	$\frac{2}{3}$
`\sqrt{2}`	$\sqrt{2}$
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Comments

is there a general way to do it

Aryan Gupta - 1 year, 7 months ago

Okay brother the solution is simple First find the no of solutions without any restriction Now you have to subtract 3 cases, Case 1 When a =5 then the solve b+c+d=5; Case 2 When b=4; Case 3 When both a and b are at their maximas.; Subtract these cases from your solution. PS- case 3 is not valid in this case.

Raghav Bakshi - 7 years, 4 months ago

Math	Appears as
Remember to wrap math in `\(` ... `\)` or `\[` ... `\]` to ensure proper formatting.
`2 \times 3`	$2 \times 3$
`2^{34}`	$2^{34}$
`a_{i-1}`	$a_{i-1}$
`\frac{2}{3}`	$\frac{2}{3}$
`\sqrt{2}`	$\sqrt{2}$
`\sum_{i=1}^3`	$\sum_{i=1}^3$
`\sin \theta`	$\sin \theta$
`\boxed{123}`	$\boxed{123}$