Find the greatest possible number of symbols
Source: Ukrainian TST 2008 Problem 2
February 12, 2009
inequalitiescombinatorics unsolvedcombinatoricsalgebra
Problem Statement
There is a row that consists of digits from to and Ukrainian letters (there are of them) with following properties: there aren’t two distinct digits or letters , such that and (if , are letters means that has greater then position in alphabet) and there aren’t two equal consecutive symbols or two equal symbols having exactly one symbol between them. Find the greatest possible number of symbols in such row.