Et tu, Brute ....

Suppose a company's board of directors is composed of 20 20 individuals. Each of these individuals has precisely 6 6 enemies on the board, the remaining members being friends. (Being enemies or friends is not a one-sided affair, i.e., any two board members are either enemies of one another or friends of one another.)

In how many ways can a 3 3 member subcommittee be formed such that its members are either all friends or all enemies?


The answer is 360.

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1 solution

Configure 20 20 points in a circular pattern separated by equal distances. These points represent the 20 20 board members. With these points we can form ( 20 3 ) = 1140 \binom{20}{3} = 1140 distinct triangles.

Now represent enemy pairings as a red line joining two points and friendships as a blue line joining two points. Now let the number of possible 3 3 -person subcommittees that are not either all friends or all enemies be N N . Each of these N N triangles has 2 2 of its vertices at the end of both a red and a blue line for a total of 2 N 2N vertices.

Now each of the 20 20 points lies at one end of 6 6 red lines and 13 13 blue lines. So each of the points will be part of 6 13 = 78 6*13 = 78 triangles which have sides which are not all the same color. This is the case for each of the 20 20 points, and these 20 78 = 1560 20*78 = 1560 triangle vertices correspond to the 2 N 2N vertices discussed above. Thus

2 N = 1560 N = 780 2N = 1560 \Longrightarrow N = 780 .

But the desired number of "all friend or all enemy" subcommittees will just be the complement N N , so the solution is 1140 780 = 360 1140 - 780 = \boxed{360} .

i like that pictorial explanation

will jain - 6 years, 8 months ago

Thanks a lot .

Super Rockers - 2 years, 4 months ago

Exactly. 👍

Arka Dutta - 2 years, 2 months ago

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