2014 Combinatorics #5: Splitting Shares
Source:
February 23, 2014
countingdistinguishability
Problem Statement
Eli, Joy, Paul, and Sam want to form a company; the company will have 16 shares to split among the people. The following constraints are imposed: Every person must get a positive integer number of shares, and all shares must be given out.
No one person can have more shares than the other three people combined. Assuming that shares are indistinguishable, but people are distinguishable, in how many ways can the shares be given out?