Adriana´s room contains N identical light bulbs with indepe

fskilnik@GMATH wrote:GMATH practice exercise (Quant Class 18)

Adriana´s room contains N identical light bulb_s with independent switches, and this room is considered well lighted only if at least two of the light bulb_s are switched on. If there are exactly 26 different ways to make Adriana´s room well lighted, what is the value of N?

(A) 4
(B) 5
(C) 6
(D) 7
(E) 8

$$?\,\,\,:\,\,\,N \ge 4\,\,{\mathop{\rm int}} \,\,{\rm{such}}\,\,{\rm{that}}\,\,\,B\left( N \right) = 26\,,\,\,\,{\rm{where}}\,\,\,B\left( N \right) = C\left( {N,2} \right) + C\left( {N,3} \right) + \ldots + C\left( {N,N} \right)\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\left( * \right)$$

$$\left( {\rm{A}} \right)\,\,\,N = 4\,\,\,\,\, \Rightarrow \,\,\,\,B\left( 4 \right)\,\, = \,\,C\left( {4,2} \right) + C\left( {4,3} \right) + C\left( {4,4} \right)\,\, = \,\,{{4 \cdot 3} \over 2} + 4 + 1\,\, = \,\,11\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\left\langle {{\rm{NO}}} \right\rangle $$
$$\left( {\rm{B}} \right)\,\,\,N = 5\,\,\,\,\, \Rightarrow \,\,\,\,B\left( 5 \right)\,\, = \,\,C\left( {5,2} \right) + C\left( {5,3} \right) + C\left( {5,4} \right) + C\left( {5,5} \right)\,\, = \,\,2 \cdot \left( {{{5 \cdot 4 \cdot 3} \over {3 \cdot 2}}} \right) + 5 + 1\,\, = \,\,20 + 5 + 1\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\left\langle {{\rm{YES}}\,{\rm{!}}} \right\rangle $$

The correct answer is therefore (B).


We follow the notations and rationale taught in the GMATH method.

Regards,
Fabio.