Math 7230 Homework 1

Hunter Patton
1.26.17

Exercise 5.
(a) Find the value of c(n) for n = 1, 2, and 3. By convention, we again set c(0) = 1. Conjecture a formula
for c(n).
(b) Prove the recurrence formula (valid for n 1)
n
X
c(n) = c(n j).
j=1

Hint: The j-th term corresponds to compositions of n whose first part is j.

(c) Use the previous part to give an inductive proof of the formula for c(n).
Proof.
(a) The compositions of 1 are:
1.
So, c(1) = 1.
The compositions of 2 are:
2, 1 + 1.
So, c(2) = 2.
The compositions of 3 are:
3, 2 + 1, 1 + 2, 1 + 1 + 1.
So, c(3) = 4.
Since c(4) = 8, I conjecture that c(n) = 2n1 .
(b) For j = 1 in the formula, consider the composition of n: 1 + (n 1). Then, we can consider all the
compositions of n 1, say , such that we have 1 + . Thus, we have c(n 1) such ways to do this.
This corresponds to the recurrence formula. Next, we consider j = 2 the same way. Thus, we have
the composition 2 + (n 2). We can uniquely find other compositions of n by considering all the
compositions of n 2. We inductively do this until we have reached j = n, which means that we have
the composition n + 0, which there is only one. Thus, it is equivalent to c(n n) = c(0) = 1. So, in
doing this, we have considered all the possible compositions of n. Thus, the recurrence formula holds.
To further illustrate this, consider the example for n = 5:
j=1:
#{1+4, 1+3+1, 1+1+3, 1+2+2, 1+2+1+1, 1+1+2+1, 1+1+2, 1+1+1+1+1} = 8 = c(51) = c(4);

1
Hunter Patton MATH 7230 Homework 1 1/26/17

j=2:
#{2 + 3, 2 + 2 + 1, 2 + 1 + 2, 2 + 1 + 1 + 1} = 4 = c(5 2) = c(3);
j=3:
#{3 + 2, 3 + 1 + 1} = 2 = c(5 3) = c(2);
j=4:
#{4 + 1} = 1 = c(5 4) = c(1);
j=5:
#{5} = 1 = c(5 5) = c(0).

(c) For the base step, consider n = 1. So, we have

c(1) = 1 = 20 = 211 .

Next, assume the result holds for n = k. In other words, we assume that c(k) = 2k1 . We wish to
show that c(k + 1) = 2k . So, using part part (b) we have
k+1
X k
X k1
X
c(k + 1) = c(k + 1 j) = c(j) = c(k) + = c(k) + c(k) = 2c(k) = 2 2k1 = 2k .
j=1 j=0 j=0

Therefore, the result holds for all n N.