olymmath

HMMT 2018 C7

  • Combinatorics
  • Answer

A tourist is learning an incorrect way to sort a permutation (p1,…,pn)\left(p_{1}, \ldots, p_{n}\right) of the integers (1,…,n)(1, \ldots, n). We define a fixf i x on two adjacent elements pip_{i} and pi+1p_{i+1}, to be an operation which swaps the two elements if pi>pi+1p_{i}>p_{i+1}, and does nothing otherwise. The tourist performs n−1n-1 rounds of fixes, numbered a=1,2,…,n−1a=1,2, \ldots, n-1. In round aa of fixes, the tourist fixes pap_{a} and pa+1p_{a+1}, then pa+1p_{a+1} and pa+2p_{a+2}, and so on, up to pn−1p_{n-1} and pnp_{n}. In this process, there are (n−1)+(n−2)+⋯+1=n(n−1)2(n-1)+(n-2)+\cdots+1=\frac{n(n-1)}{2} total fixes performed. How many permutations of (1,…,2018)(1, \ldots, 2018) can the tourist start with to obtain (1,…,2018)(1, \ldots, 2018) after performing these steps?

Dataset text NuminaMath olympiads. Quoted with source.

Show the answer

1009! \cdot 1010!

Solutions

No solution is on olymmath yet. Official and human solutions come first when they arrive. AI solutions come after them, with a label.

Add a solution

Locator hmmt/2018/c7 · Tag 835JEFV9QQ · Edit this page on GitHub · Keys: j next, k previous