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Printimc
counting and probability intermediate
Problem
Two subsets of the set are to be chosen so that their union is and their intersection contains exactly two elements. In how many ways can this be done, assuming that the order in which the subsets are chosen does not matter?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
Solution
First, choose the two letters to be repeated in each set. . Now we have three remaining elements that we wish to place into two separate subsets. There are ways to do so because each of the three remaining letters can be placed either into the first or second subset. Both of those subsets contain the two chosen elements, so their intersection is the two chosen elements). Unfortunately, we have over-counted (Take for example and ). Notice how and are interchangeable. Division by two will fix this problem. Thus we have:
Final answer
B