Probability MT22, Misc


Flashcards

Counting and binomial identities

How many permutations are there of $n$ distinguishable objects?

\[n!\]

@State Stirling’s formula for an approximation of $n!$.

\[n! \sim \sqrt{2\pi} n^{n+1/2} e^{-n}\]

@State Vandermonde’s identity for

\[\binom{m+n}{k}\]
\[\sum^k _ {j=0} \binom{m}{j} \binom{n}{k-j}\]

@Prove Vandermonde’s identity (∆vandermondes-identity), i.e.

\[\binom{m+n}{k} = \sum _ {j=0}^k \binom{m}{j} \binom{n}{k-j}\]

@todo (probability, page 6).

What’s the intuitive reason ${}^n C _ k = {}^n C _ {n-k}$?

Because choosing $k$ objects is the same as not choosing the other $n - k$ objects.

What’s

\[k \binom{n}{k}\]

equivalent to?

\[n \binom{n-1}{k-1}\]

Countability

@Define what it means for a set $S$ to be countable.

Either there exists a bijection $\mathbb{N} \to S$ or $S$ is finite.

Methods

@Describe the stars and bars method.

Solving combinatorial problems involving bins by considering the permutations of stars and bars.