Given an arbitrary set S containing 100 elements, how many subsets T of S exist subject to the following conditions:
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Create a generating function for each of the conditions:
If Z ( x ) = no. integers, then Z ( x ) = 1 + x 5 + x 1 0 + . . . = 1 − x 5 1
If Q ( x ) =no. irrationals, then Q ( x ) = 1 + x 6 + x 1 2 + . . . = 1 − x 6 1
If C ( x ) =no. complex numbers, then C ( x ) = 1 + x + x 2 + x 3 + x 4 + x 5 = 1 − x 1 − x 6 using the geometric sum formula.
The generating function T ( x ) describing the total number of elements is just the product of these functions, which is ( 1 − x 5 1 ) ⋅ ( 1 − x 6 1 ) ⋅ ( 1 − x 1 − x 6 ) = ( 1 − x 5 ) ( 1 − x ) 1 .
Expanding T ( x ) gives T ( x ) = ( 1 + x 5 + x 1 0 + x 1 5 + . . . ) ( 1 + x + x 2 + x 3 + x 4 + . . . ) The number of subsets is simply the coefficient of x 1 0 0 in the expansion of T ( x ) . Therefore, the coefficient of x 1 0 0 is:
i + j = 1 0 0 ∑ ( a i b j ) , where a i is the coefficient of x i of 1 + x 5 + x 1 0 + . . . and b j is the coefficient of x j of 1 + x + x 2 + x 3 + . . . , which = 1 for all j .
For 1 + x 5 + x 1 0 + . . . , the coefficient of x i = 1 where i = 5 k for some integer k , and therefore there are 21 terms with coefficient 1. The other 80 terms all have a coefficient of 0.
Therefore, the coefficient of x 1 0 0 = 2 1 ( 1 ⋅ 1 ) + 8 0 ( 0 ⋅ 1 ) = 2 1 .