%From:Doron Zeilberger, %TO:E-friends %Re:Hopefully the last unsolicited e-paper to be distributed %I have asked our system administrator to establish an anonymous ftp %for people who are intereseted to "get" my papers. When he does that, %I will only send a short ad when new papers become available. Until he gets %around to it, here is a new paper, that would not take too much %of your precious disk-space. If anybody has seen this proof %before please let me know as soon as possible. %-------begin plain TeX file of distributed preprint----------- \font\eightrm=cmr8 \font\sixrm=cmr6 \font\eighttt=cmtt8 \magnification=\magstephalf \def\lheading#1{\bigbreak \noindent {\bf#1} \medskip} \parindent=0pt \overfullrule=0in \bf \noindent The ${n^{n-2}}^{th}$ Proof Of The Formula For The Number Of Labelled Trees \medskip \noindent \it Doron Zeilberger\footnote{$^1$} {\eightrm Department of Mathematics, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA. \break {\eighttt zeilberg@euclid.math.temple.edu .} Supported in part by the NSF. } \medskip \noindent \rm There are probably already more than $4^2$ different proofs of the Cayley-Borchardt formula, $n^{n-2}$, for the number of labelled trees on $n$ vertices([K],[M].) The one I present here is not the prettiest,this honor goes to Joyal's[J] (see also [L]), and not the ugliest, but it is {\it mine} (although it has some similarities with Clarke's proof[C].) \smallskip Let $R(e,b)$ be the number of ways of organizing $e$ employees and $b$ bosses, such that every employee has exactly one immediate supervisor (who may be another employee or a boss), in such a way that no employee is her own (immediate or non-immediate) superior. The ways of deciding the organization can be split into four independent decisions: \smallskip (i) How many employees, $s$, $1 \leq s \leq e$, will report directly to bosses? Let's call them {\it little bosses}. \smallskip (ii) Which $s$ of the $e$ employees will be named {\it little bosses}: ${ {e} \choose {s}}$ ways. \smallskip (iii)How to organize the $s$ little bosses and remaining $e-s$ employees amongst themselves: $R(e-s,s)$ ways. \smallskip (iv) For each of the $s$ little bosses, which big boss should she report to?: $b^s$ ways. \smallskip Hence: $$ R(e,b)= \sum_{s=1}^{e} {{e} \choose {s}} b^s R(e-s,s) \quad, \eqno(*) $$ which together with the trivial initial condition $R(0,b)=1$, uniquely determines $R$. Since the recurrence (*), and the initial condition, are also satisfied by $b(b+e)^{e-1}$, by the binomial theorem, it follows that $R(e,b)=b(b+e)^{e-1}$. In particular, $R(n-1,1)$, the number of labelled trees on $n$ vertices, equals $n^{n-2}$. \medskip \noindent {\bf References} \medskip \noindent [C] L.E. Clarke, {\it On Cayley's formula for counting trees}, J. London Math. Soc. {\bf 33}(1958), 471-475. [J] A. Joyal, {\it Une th\'eorie combinatoire des s\'eries formelles}, Adv. in Math. {\bf 42}(1981), 1-82. [K] D.E. Knuth, {\it ``The Art Of Computing Programming'', v.1: ``Fundamental Algorithms''}, 2nd edition, Addison-Wesley, Reading, 1973. (p. 406). [L] G. Labelle, {\it Une nouvelle d\'emonstration combinatoire des formules d'inversion de Lagrange}, Adv. in Math. {\bf 42}(1981), 217-247. [M] J.W. Moon, {\it ``Counting Labelled Trees''}, Canad. Math. Congress, Montreal, 1970. \bye -----end distributed preprint------------------------------------