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JEE Advanced 2025 · Relations and Functions (Class 12)

Let the set of all relations R on the set {\{a,b,c,d,e,f},, b, c, d, e, f\}, such that R is reflexive and symmetric, and R contains exactly 10 elements, be denoted by S. Then the number of elements in S is ______.

Answer: 105105

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Written solution

A={a,b,c,d,e,f},∣A∣=6A = \{a,b,c,d,e,f\},\quad |A| = 6

R⊆A×A:R reflexive and symmetricR \subseteq A\times A:\quad R \text{ reflexive and symmetric}

∣R∣=10|R| = 10

S={R:R reflexive, symmetric, ∣R∣=10}S = \{R : R \text{ reflexive, symmetric},\ |R|=10\}

Find ∣S∣\text{Find } |S|

1. count all pairs; reflexive fixes the diagonal1.\ \text{count all pairs; reflexive fixes the diagonal}

2. symmetry⇒count the off-diagonal pairs2.\ \text{symmetry} \Rightarrow \text{count the off-diagonal pairs}

3. ∣R∣=10⇒count the choices3.\ |R|=10 \Rightarrow \text{count the choices}

∣A×A∣=62=36|A\times A| = 6^2 = 36

reflexive⇒(a,a),(b,b),…,(f,f)∈R  (6 fixed)\text{reflexive} \Rightarrow (a,a),(b,b),\ldots,(f,f)\in R\ \ (6\ \text{fixed})

off-diagonal pairs=36−6=30\text{off-diagonal pairs} = 36 - 6 = 30

(x,y)∈R⇔(y,x)∈R ⇒ (62)=15 pairs(x,y)\in R \Leftrightarrow (y,x)\in R \ \Rightarrow\ \binom{6}{2} = 15\ \text{pairs}

choose k of the 15 pairs\text{choose } k \text{ of the } 15 \text{ pairs}

∣R∣=6+2k|R| = 6 + 2k

6+2k=10⇒2k=4⇒k=26 + 2k = 10 \Rightarrow 2k = 4 \Rightarrow k = 2

∣S∣=(152)=15⋅142=105|S| = \binom{15}{2} = \frac{15\cdot 14}{2} = 105

{(a,a),…,(f,f),(a,b),(b,a),(c,d),(d,c)}\{(a,a),\ldots,(f,f),(a,b),(b,a),(c,d),(d,c)\}

6+2+2=10✓6 + 2 + 2 = 10 \quad ✓

∣S∣=105\boxed{|S| = 105}

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