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Arturo Magidin
Arturo Magidin
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[DELETED][DELETED] Number of ways to choose + and - to make an equation correct

[DELETED][DELETED][DELETED][DELETED]Say we had n non-zero real numbers $a_i$ and another real number b. What is the maximum number of ways to choose a + or a - for each number such that the equation:

$(+/-) a_1 (+/-) a_b ... (+/-)a_n = b$ is correct?

I believe the answer could be $\binom{n}{n/2}$ (imagine b=0 and all $a_i$ were the same) but I am not to sure how to explain this more formally.

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Number of ways to choose + and - to make an equation correct

Say we had n non-zero real numbers $a_i$ and another real number b. What is the maximum number of ways to choose a + or a - for each number such that the equation:

$(+/-) a_1 (+/-) a_b ... (+/-)a_n = b$ is correct?

I believe the answer could be $\binom{n}{n/2}$ (imagine b=0 and all $a_i$ were the same) but I am not to sure how to explain this more formally.

deleted 329 characters in body; edited title
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adamC
adamC
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Number of ways to choose + and - to make an equation correct [DELETED][DELETED]

Say we had n non-zero real numbers $a_i$ and another real number b. What is the maximum number of ways to choose a + or a - for each number such that the equation:

$(+/-) a_1 (+/-) a_b ... (+/-)a_n = b$ is correct?

I believe the answer could be $\binom{n}{n/2}$ (imagine b=0 and all $a_i$ were the same) but I am not to sure how to explain this more formally.[DELETED][DELETED][DELETED][DELETED]

Number of ways to choose + and - to make an equation correct

Say we had n non-zero real numbers $a_i$ and another real number b. What is the maximum number of ways to choose a + or a - for each number such that the equation:

$(+/-) a_1 (+/-) a_b ... (+/-)a_n = b$ is correct?

I believe the answer could be $\binom{n}{n/2}$ (imagine b=0 and all $a_i$ were the same) but I am not to sure how to explain this more formally.

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added 9 characters in body
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adamC
adamC
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Say we had n non-zero real numbers $a_i$ and another real number b. What is the maximum number of ways to choose a + or a - for each number such that the equation:

$(+/-) a_1 (+/-) a_b ... (+/-)a_n = b$ is correct?

I believe the answer could be $\binom{n}{n/2}$ (imagine b=0 and all $a_i$ were the same) but I am not to sure how to explain this more formally.

Say we had n real numbers $a_i$ and another real number b. What is the maximum number of ways to choose a + or a - for each number such that the equation:

$(+/-) a_1 (+/-) a_b ... (+/-)a_n = b$ is correct?

I believe the answer could be $\binom{n}{n/2}$ (imagine b=0 and all $a_i$ were the same) but I am not to sure how to explain this more formally.

Say we had n non-zero real numbers $a_i$ and another real number b. What is the maximum number of ways to choose a + or a - for each number such that the equation:

$(+/-) a_1 (+/-) a_b ... (+/-)a_n = b$ is correct?

I believe the answer could be $\binom{n}{n/2}$ (imagine b=0 and all $a_i$ were the same) but I am not to sure how to explain this more formally.

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adamC
adamC
  • 11
  • 2