SOLUTION: Seventeen lines drawn in a plane, with no 3 concurrent and no 2 parallel, divide the plane into closed regions(bounded on all sides) and open regions. The number of closed regions

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Question 1123297: Seventeen lines drawn in a plane, with no 3 concurrent and no 2 parallel, divide the plane into closed regions(bounded on all sides) and open regions. The number of closed regions is?
Answer by ikleyn(52781)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
.
Each group of 3 lines makes one triangle; 
and vise versa, each such a triangle defines a group of 3 lines by an unique way.
So, there are   triangles.


Each group of 4 lines makes one quadrilateral; 
and vise versa, each such a quadrilateral defines a group of 4 lines by an unique way.
So, there are   quadrilaterals.


Each group of 5 lines makes one pentagon; 
and vise versa, each such a pentagon defines a group of 5 lines by an unique way.
So, there are   pentagons.


   . . . . . . . .  and  so  on  . . . . . . 


Each group of 16 lines makes one 16-gon; 
and vise versa, each such a 16-gon defines a group of 16 lines by an unique way.
So, there are   16-gons.


Finally, all 17 lines together make 1 =   17-gon.


So, the number of all closed regions is the sum


    S =  +  +  + . . .  + .


If you complement this sum with the terms   +  + C, you will get


    S +  +  + C =  +  + C +   +  +  + . . .  + .


The long sum in the very right side is equal to  .    (*)


Therefore,  the number S under the question is equal to

    S =  - ( +  + C) =  - 1 - 17 -  =  - 1 - 17 - 136 =  - 154.

Solved.

--------------------

In the solution, I used notations for the number of combinations of n items taken k at a time.

I also used the formula (*) without proof.

This problem is of the Math circle level, so I assume that the person who will read this solution knows all these things.

If not, look into the lessons
    - Introduction to Combinations
    - PROOF of the formula on the number of Combinations
    - Problems on Combinations
    - OVERVIEW of lessons on Permutations and Combinations

    - Binomial Theorem, Binomial Formula, Binomial Coefficients and Binomial Expansion
    - Remarkable identities for Binomial Coefficients
    - The Pascal's triangle
    - Solved problems on binomial coefficients

    - How many subsets are there in a given finite set of n elements?
in this site.

==============

For the reader who is interested in solution of such problems, the following info might be interesting.

I prepared 3 online textbook here, in the site www.algebra.com.

These textbooks are

Free of charge online textbook in ALGEBRA-I
https://www.algebra.com/algebra/homework/quadratic/lessons/ALGEBRA-I-YOUR-ONLINE-TEXTBOOK.lesson


Free of charge online textbook in ALGEBRA-II
https://www.algebra.com/algebra/homework/complex/ALGEBRA-II-YOUR-ONLINE-TEXTBOOK.lesson


Free of charge online textbook in GEOMETRY
https://www.algebra.com/algebra/homework/Triangles/GEOMETRY-your-online-textbook.lesson


Save this info in your archive as a text-file (.txt), and use it when it is needed.


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