User talk:HelmerAslaksen

Stars and bars

Hi HelmerAslaksen, To make the change you suggested correct, one would also have to switch the occurrences of k,n in the very first part of the statement of theorem 2. This would then completely switch the roles of the letters k and n. It would also break parallelism with the statement of theorem 1, so I have reverted to the original version. Best, JBL (talk) 14:37, 22 June 2015 (UTC)

Hi Joel, right after I made the changes I realized that I had written it incorrectly. What I meant was to write bin(n+k-1,k-1) and ((n,k-1)). I see now that this version becomes problematic for k=0, so I see why you may prefer the other version. But I still think that the analogy with Theorem 1 is clearer with k-1 at the bottom.— Preceding unsigned comment added by HelmerAslaksen (talk • contribs)

Yes, I see your point, it would look more parallel with k-1. Really it only breaks the case (n, k) = (0, 0) (if we take the reasonable definition ${\binom {n}{k}}=0$ unless $0\leq k\leq n$), but this is currently being dealt with by an awkward special case that is immediately disposed of in the proof. I don't know when I will get the chance to think more about this, but it certainly could be improved -- I may try to change the statement along the lines you were thinking, and also adjust the proof appropriately. You are welcome to have a go yourself, of course! All the best, JBL (talk) 20:34, 23 June 2015 (UTC)

Hi HelmerAslaksen,

I have adopted the changes you suggested, along with a substantial rewrite of the rest of the article. I would be grateful if at some point you looked it over for errors.

All the best,

JBL (talk) 21:38, 3 July 2015 (UTC)