The only way that 10 can be written as the sum of 4 distinct natural numbers is . In how many different ways can 15 be written as the sum of 4 distinct natural numbers?
Note : The order of the numbers does not matter.
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Since 1 5 = 1 0 + 5 = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5
We need to distribute the 5 to the numbers in different ways to make different ways to represent the number.
So 1 5 = 1 + 2 + 3 + ( 4 + 5 ) = 1 + 2 + 3 + 9 1 5 = 1 + 2 + ( 3 + 5 ) + 4 = 1 + 2 + 8 + 4 1 5 = 1 + ( 2 + 5 ) + 3 + 4 = 1 + 7 + 3 + 4 1 5 = ( 1 + 5 ) + 2 + 3 + 4 = 6 + 2 + 3 + 4
Now we need to split the 5 between the numbers.The only ways to split 5 such that there are 4 or less numbers in the partition is 5 = 4 + 1 = 3 + 2 = 3 + 1 + 1 = 2 + 2 + 1 .The only ways to split it such that no number equals the other in the partition (and also that it's not equivalent to another partition) is 1 + 2 + 5 + 7
So the total number is 6