How's It Possible?

You have a set of 20 different objects.

Let S S be the total number of ways in which you can select and permute any number of these objects.

Find the digit sum of S S .

Details and Assumptions

  • The digit sum of a number is the sum of its individual digits. For example, the digit sum of 121 is 1 + 2 + 1 = 4 1+2+1 = 4 .
  • You can pick any number of objects, from 0 to 20.


The answer is 59.

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1 solution

Pratik Shastri
Jan 10, 2015

The required number of ways is r = 0 20 ( 20 r ) r ! = r = 0 20 ( 20 r ) 0 e x x r d x = 0 r = 0 20 ( 20 r ) e x x r d x = 0 e x ( 1 + x ) 20 d x = e Γ ( 21 , 1 ) \begin{aligned} \sum_{r=0}^{20} \binom{20}{r} r! &= \sum_{r=0}^{20} \binom{20}{r} \int_{0}^{\infty} e^{-x} x^r \mathrm{d}x\\ &= \int_{0}^{\infty} \sum_{r=0}^{20} \binom{20}{r} e^{-x} x^r \mathrm{d}x\\ &= \int_{0}^{\infty} e^{-x} (1+x)^{20} \mathrm{d}x\\ &=\boxed{e \cdot \Gamma(21,1)}\end{aligned}

Note : Γ ( a , x ) \Gamma (a,x) is the upper incomplete gamma function.

:o I had to resort to manually computing the sum but I never thought of using Γ ( 21 , 1 ) \Gamma(21,1) . It's amazing how everything follows so neatly when you substitute k ! k! with the integral form of Γ ( k + 1 ) \Gamma(k+1) . Kudos!

Jake Lai - 6 years, 5 months ago

Did the same! But was just thinking how to calculate Γ ( 21 , 1 ) \Gamma(21,1) ?

Kartik Sharma - 6 years, 4 months ago

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