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Questions tagged [integer-partitions]

Use this tag for questions related to ways of writing a positive integer as a sum of positive integers.

89 votes
7 answers
164k views

Number of ways to write n as a sum of k nonnegative integers

How many ways can I write a positive integer $n$ as a sum of $k$ nonnegative integers up to commutativity? For example, I can write $4$ as $0+0+4$, $0+1+3$, $0+2+2$, and $1+1+2$. I know how to find ...
Yellow's user avatar
  • 901
63 votes
1 answer
2k views

Why are asymptotically one half of the integer compositions gap-free?

Question summary The number of gap-free compositions of $n$ can already for quite small $n$ be very well approximated by the total number of compositions of $n$ divided by $2$. This question seeks ...
Daniel R's user avatar
  • 3,199
36 votes
3 answers
2k views

Very curious properties of ordered partitions relating to Fibonacci numbers

I came across some interesting propositions in some calculations I did and I was wondering if someone would be so kind as to provide some explanations of these phenomenon. We call an ordered ...
Thomas's user avatar
  • 361
35 votes
7 answers
27k views

Making Change for a Dollar (and other number partitioning problems)

I was trying to solve a problem similar to the "how many ways are there to make change for a dollar" problem. I ran across a site that said I could use a generating function similar to the ...
Peter's user avatar
  • 465
34 votes
0 answers
710 views

Visualizing the Partition numbers (suggestions for visualization techniques)

So Ken Ono says that the partition numbers behave like fractals, in which case I'd like to try to find an appropriately illuminating way of visualizing them. But I'm sort of stuck at the moment, so ...
graveolensa's user avatar
  • 5,698
33 votes
5 answers
57k views

Counting bounded integer solutions to $\sum_ia_ix_i\leqq n$

I want to find the number of nonnegative integer solutions to $$x_1+x_2+x_3+x_4=22$$ which is also the number of combinations with replacement of $22$ items in $4$ types. How do I apply stars and bars ...
Partly Putrid Pile of Pus's user avatar
27 votes
1 answer
34k views

The number of partitions of $n$ into distinct parts equals the number of partitions of $n$ into odd parts

This seems to be a common result. I've been trying to follow the bijective proof of it, which can be found easily online, but the explanations go over my head. It would be wonderful if you could give ...
rapidash's user avatar
  • 497
27 votes
1 answer
1k views

Feeding real or even complex numbers to the integer partition function $p(n)$?

Like most people, when I first encountered $n!$ in grade school, I graphed it, then connected the dots with a smooth curve and reasoned that there must be some meaning to $\left(\frac43\right)!$ — and,...
futurebird's user avatar
  • 6,268
24 votes
1 answer
1k views

Ellipse 3-partition: same area and perimeter

Inspired by the question, "How to partition area of an ellipse into odd number of regions?," I ask for a partition an ellipse into three convex pieces, each of which has the same area and the same ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
21 votes
3 answers
3k views

Closed-form Expression of the Partition Function $p(n)$

I feel like I have seen news that a paper was recently published, at most a few months ago, that solved the well-known problem of finding a closed-form expression for the partition function $p(n)$ ...
Jérémie's user avatar
  • 364
20 votes
1 answer
1k views

On the inequality $\frac{1+p(1)+p(2) + \dots + p(n-1)}{p(n)} \leq \sqrt {2n}.$

For all positive integers $n$, $p(n)$ is the number of partitions of $n$ as the sum of positive integers (the partition numbers); e.g. $p(4)=5$ since $4=1+1+1+1=1+1+2=1+3=2+2=4.$ Prove ...
jack's user avatar
  • 1,256
20 votes
1 answer
4k views

Partition of ${1, 2, ... , n}$ into subsets with equal sums.

The following is one of the old contest problems (22nd All Soviet Union Math Contest, 1988). Let $m, n, k$ be positive integers such that $m \ge n$ and $1 + 2 + ... + n = mk$. Prove that the numbers $...
stein's user avatar
  • 383
19 votes
3 answers
101k views

Number of possible combinations of x numbers that sum to y

I want to find out the number of possible combinations of $x$ numbers that sum to $y$. For example, I want to calculate all combination of 5 numbers, which their sum equals to 10. An asymptotic ...
Ho1's user avatar
  • 293
19 votes
1 answer
1k views

Can we partition the reciprocals of $\mathbb{N}$ so that each sum equals 1

Let $S = \{1, 1/2,1/3,\dots\}$ Can we find a partition $P$ of $S$ so that each part sums to 1, e.g. $$P_1 = {1}$$ $$P_2 = { 1/2,1/5,1/7,1/10,1/14,1/70}$$ $$P_3 = {1/3,1/4,1/6,1/9,1/12,1/18}$$ $$P_4 = \...
AndroidBeginner's user avatar
18 votes
6 answers
9k views

Prime Partition

A prime partition of a number is a set of primes that sum to the number. For instance, {2 3 7} is a prime partition of $12$ because $2 + 3 + 7 = 12$. In fact, there ...
user448810's user avatar

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