"How many flavours are there?" he asks the salesman.
"There are n flavours today."
"Then I would like a number of cones, each with k different flavours."
"And no two cones must be identical? Ah, that's a classic problem of combinatorics."
"No, that's too easy. And that way, I would get some cones that are almost identical. No, I want there to be no two cones that have p flavours in common."
- Let's start with something easy: Suppose p = 1; in other words, no two cones have any flavours in common. How many cones will Bengt get?
- Then the classic problem, where p = k; no two cones are identical. How many cones does Bengt get?
- Finally, the problem Bengt is really concerned with, for a general p. How many cones?