Discrete Math (Combination with Repetitions). Given (x+y+z)^{50}. How many terms does it have?

yrealeq

yrealeq

Answered question

2022-09-06

Discrete Math (Combination with Repetitions)
Given ( x + y + z ) 50 . How many terms does it have?

Answer & Explanation

Willie Gilmore

Willie Gilmore

Beginner2022-09-07Added 8 answers

Step 1
For the number of terms in ( x + y + z ) n , think of it as:
Consider x,y,z to be "distinct" boxes and n be the number of "identical" balls. Now each term in the expansion, looks like (some coefficient) x p y q z r . And now think of these powers as the number of balls you can throw in each box. Therefore, total number of terms is equivalent to counting total number of ways you can throw in these balls in the boxes, which is easy to count, using the stars and bars method, which turns out to be ( n + 2 2 ) .
Step 2
More generally, the number of terms in the expansion of ( x 1 + x 2 + + x k ) n will be ( n + k 1 k 1 )

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