Archive for second degree polynomial

Le Monde puzzle [#1121]

Posted in Books, Kids with tags , , , , on December 17, 2019 by xi'an

A combinatoric puzzle as Le weekly Monde current mathematical puzzle:

A class of 75<n<100 students is divided at random into two groups of sizes a and b=n-a, respectively, such that the probability that two particular students Ji-ae and Jung-ah have a probability of exactly 1/2 to be in the same group. Find a and n.

(with an original wording mentioning an independent allocation to the group!). Since the probability to be in the same group (under a simple uniform partition distribution) is

\frac{a(1-1)}{n(n-1)}+\frac{b(b-1)}{n(n-1)}

it is sufficient to seek by exhaustion values of (a,b) such that this ratio is equal to ½. The only solution within the right range is then (36,45) (up to the symmetric pair). This can be also found by seeking integer solutions to the second degree polynomial equation, namely

b^\star=\left[ 1+2a\pm\sqrt{1+8a}\right]/2 \in \mathbb N

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