# Difference between revisions of "2010 AIME II Problems/Problem 8"

## Problem

Let $N$ be the number of ordered pairs of nonempty sets $\mathcal{A}$ and $\mathcal{B}$ that have the following properties:

• $\mathcal{A} \cup \mathcal{B} = \{1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12\}$,
• $\mathcal{A} \cap \mathcal{B} = \emptyset$,
• The number of elements of $\mathcal{A}$ is not an element of $\mathcal{A}$,
• The number of elements of $\mathcal{B}$ is not an element of $\mathcal{B}$.

Find $N$.

## Solution

Let us partition the set $\{1,2,\cdots,12\}$ into $n$ numbers in $A$ and $12-n$ numbers in $B$,

Since $n$ must be in $B$ and $12-n$ must be in $A$ ($n\ne6$, we cannot partition into two sets of 6 because $6$ needs to end up somewhere, $n\ne 0$ or $12$ either).

We have $\dbinom{10}{n-1}$ ways of picking the numbers to be in $A$.

So the answer is $\left(\sum_{n=1}^{11} \dbinom{10}{n-1}\right) - \dbinom{10}{5}=2^{10}-252= \boxed{772}$.

Note: We have $\dbinom{10}{n-1}$ ways of picking the numbers to be in $A$ because there are $n$ numbers in $A$ and since $12-n$ is already a term in the set we simply have to choose another $n-1$ numbers from the $10$ numbers that are available.

## Solution 2

Regardless of the size $n$ of $A$ (ignoring the case when $n = 6$), $n$ must not be in $A$ and $12 - n$ must be in $A$.

There are $10$ remaining elements whose placements have yet to be determined. Note that the actual value of $n$ does not matter; there is always $1$ necessary element, $1$ forbidden element, and $10$ other elements that need to be distributed. There are $2$ places to put each of these elements, for $2^{10}$ possibilities.

However, there is the edge case of $n = 6; 6$ is forced not the be in either set, so we must subtract the $\dbinom{10}{5}$ cases where $A$ and $B$ have size $6$.

Thus, our answer is $2^{10} - \dbinom{10}{5} = 1024 - 252 = \boxed{772}$