Number of ways to distribute ice cream to children.

combinationscombinatorics

A certain school of 10 children is visiting the local ice-cream factory to see how ice-cream is made. After the demonstration, the factory has 15 scoops of vanilla ice-cream and 2 scoops of chocolate ice-cream to distribute to the kids. How many ways can the ice-cream be distributed if each child must receive at least one scoop of ice-cream?

My solution to this is by partitioning the set of ways by the number of chocolate scoop a child will get. Let $C$ be the set of ways to distribute all the ice cream and let $C_1,C_2 \subset C$, where $C_i$ is the set where a child gets $i$ scoops of chocolate ice cream. $C_1 = \ $${10}\choose{2}$$\cdot$${8}\choose{8}$$\cdot$${10}\choose{7}$$=5,400\ ways$, where we must first distribute the 2 scoops of chocolate ice cream to the 10 children (${10}\choose{2}$), then give those who are not given a scoop of chocolate ice cream a scoop of vanilla ice cream (${8}\choose{8}$), and lastly I distribute the remaining 7 vanilla ice cream to all 10 children (${10}\choose{7}$). In the same manner, $C_2 = $${10}\choose{1}$$\cdot$${9}\choose{9}$$\cdot$${10}\choose{6}$ $=2,100$ ways. Hence $C = C_1 + C_2 = 7,500 \ $ ways.

Is this correct?

Best Answer

There are two options (assuming all scoops must be distributed):

One kid gets both scoops of chocolate You need to choose the lucky one ($10$) options, then give one vanilla to the rest. You are left with 6 vanilla scoops to give the 10 children. It is equivalent to the number of solutions to $x_1+\ldots+x_{10}=6$ with $x_i\geq 0$, which is ${10+6-1 \choose 10}$.

Two kids get chocolate You need to choose the two (${10 \choose 2}$) then give the 8 kids a scope of vanilla. You are left with 7 vanilla to give the 10 children, so the same as above with different numbers.

Total $$10 {15 \choose 10} + {10 \choose 2}{16 \choose 10}$$

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