MathDB
2022 Combinatorics 3

Source:

March 18, 2022
combinatorics

Problem Statement

Michel starts with the string HMMT. An operation consists of either replacing an occurrence of H with HM, replacing an occurrence of MM with MOM, or replacing an occurrence of T with MT. For example, the two strings that can be reached after one operation are HMMMT and HMOMT. Compute the number of distinct strings Michel can obtain after exactly 1010 operations.