[Math] Combinatorics: Number of subsets with cardinality k with 1 element.

combinatoricsdiscrete mathematics

Consider the set |n| = {1,2,…,n}. How many subsets does it have of cardinality k and that contain the element 1?

I understand that with each element, you can either include it or not to have a total of k elements, but I'm not sure exactly how to show this for any set of finite size.

Best Answer

It can be reduced to the case when choosing $k-1$ elements from the set $\{2,3,...,n\}$.

So the answer is $\displaystyle\binom{n-1}{k-1}$.

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