Stars and bars (combinatorics): Difference between revisions

Content deleted Content added
Theorem two: Move links to earlier occurrences. Theorem two now states the binomial coefficient formula, for those not familiar with multisets and multichoose.
Removed problemetic statement about negative binomial distribution from the introduction. "Problematic" for a number of reasons: not suitable for the the introduction; not clear how it relates to the counting method of this article; "different support ranges" unclear; a theorem is not a coefficient.
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In [[combinatorics]], '''stars and bars''' (also called "sticks and stones",<ref>{{Cite book|last=Batterson|first=J|title=Competition Math for Middle School|publisher=Art of Problem Solving}}</ref> "balls and bars",<ref>{{cite book|last1=Flajolet|first1=Philippe|last2=Sedgewick|first2=Robert|date=June 26, 2009|title=Analytic Combinatorics|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn = 978-0-521-89806-5}}</ref> and "dots and dividers"<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Art of Problem Solving|url=https://artofproblemsolving.com/wiki/index.php/Ball-and-urn|access-date=2021-10-26|website=artofproblemsolving.com}}</ref>) is a graphical aid for deriving certain [[combinatorial]] theorems. It can be used to solve many simple [[combinatorial enumeration|counting problems]], such as how many ways there are to put {{mvar|n}} indistinguishable balls into {{mvar|k}} distinguishable bins.<ref>{{cite book |last=Feller |first=William |author-link=William Feller |year=1968 |title=An Introduction to Probability Theory and Its Applications |publisher=Wiley |volume=1 |edition=3rd |page=38}}</ref>
 
Theorems one and two are the coefficients used for 2 different support ranges in the [[Negative binomial distribution|negative binomial probability distribution]].
 
==Statements of theorems==