Let be a 4-digit integer such that the leading digit is the sum of the remaining digits. How many possible values of can there be?
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Without relying upon finding patterns, we can view the first part of the problem, B + C + D = A using stars and bars. We have 3 slots (B, C, D) and A objects to distribute. We then get ( 3 − 1 A + 3 − 1 ) = ( 2 A + 2 ) ways given a fixed first digit. We must calculate the sum for all first digits then. As A goes from 1 to 9, we can see that A+2 goes from 3 to 11.
i = 3 ∑ 1 1 ( 2 i ) = i = 2 ∑ 1 1 ( 2 i ) − ( 2 2 ) = ( 3 1 2 ) − 1 using hockey stick identity, ( 3 1 2 ) − 1 = 2 1 9