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jmc

counting and probability senior

Problem

A board is completely covered by tiles without overlap; each tile may cover any number of consecutive squares, and each tile lies completely on the board. Each tile is either red, blue, or green. Let be the number of tilings of the board in which all three colors are used at least once. For example, a red tile followed by a green tile, a green tile, a blue tile, and a green tile is a valid tiling. Note that if the blue tile is replaced by two blue tiles, this results in a different tiling. Find the remainder when is divided by .
Solution
Firstly, we consider how many different ways possible to divide the board. We ignore the cases of 1 or 2 pieces since we need at least one tile of each color. Three pieces: , , , etc, ways in total (just apply stars and bars here) Four pieces: Five pieces: Six pieces: Seven pieces: Secondly, we use Principle of Inclusion-Exclusion to consider how many ways to color them: Three pieces: Four pieces: Five pieces: Six pieces: Seven pieces: Finally, we combine them together: . So the answer is .
Final answer
106