MathDB

2016 Mathematical Talent Reward Programme

Part of Mathematics Talent Reward Programme (MTRP)

Subcontests

(21)

A problem on partitions from MTRP 2016

Consider the set A={1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9}A=\{1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9\}.A partition Π\Pi of AA is collection of disjoint sets whose union is AA. For example, Π1={{1,2},{3,4,5},{6,7,8,9}}\Pi_1=\{\{1,2\},\{3,4,5\},\{6,7,8,9\}\} and Π2={{1},{2,5},{3,7},{4,5,6,7,8,9}}\Pi _2 =\{\{1\},\{2,5\},\{3,7\},\{4,5,6,7,8,9\}\} can be considered as partitions of AA. For, each Π\Pi partition ,we consider the function π\pi defined on the elements ofAA. π(x)\pi (x) denotes the cardinality of the subset in Π\Pi which contains xx. For, example in case of Π1\Pi_1 , π1(1)=π1(2)=2\pi_1(1)=\pi_1(2)=2, π1(3)=π1(4)=π1(5)=3\pi_1(3)=\pi_1(4)=\pi_1 (5)=3, and π1(6)=π1(7)=π1(8)=π1(9)=4\pi_1(6)=\pi_1(7)=\pi_1(8)=\pi_1(9)=4. For Π2\Pi_2 we have π2(1)=1\pi_2(1)=1, π2(2)=π2(5)=2\pi_2(2)=\pi_2(5)=2, π2(3)=π2(7)=2\pi_2(3)=\pi_2(7)=2 and π2(4)=π2(6)=π2(8)=π2(9)=4\pi_2(4)=\pi_2(6)=\pi_2(8)=\pi_2(9)=4 Given any two partitions Π\Pi and Π\Pi ', show that there are two numbers xx and yy in AA, such that π(x)=π(x)\pi (x)= \pi '(x) and π(y)=π(y) \pi (y)= \pi'(y).[Hint: Consider the case where there is a block of size greater than or equal to 4 in a partition and the alternative case]