MathDB
words of max 3n letters in alphabet of n letters

Source: 7th QEDMO problem 3 (14. - 17. 1. 2010) https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c1512515_qedmo_200507

May 9, 2021
combinatorics

Problem Statement

An alphabet has nn letters. A word is called differentiated if it has the following property fulfilled: No letter occurs more than once between two identical letters. For example with the alphabet {a,b,c,d}\{a, b, c, d\} the word abbdacbdd is not, the word bbacbadcdd is differentiated. (a) Each differentiated word has a maximum of 3n3n letters. (b) How many differentiated words with exactly 3n3n letters are ther