How many nonnegative integer solutions are there to $$x_1 + x_2 + \ldots + x_5 = 20$$
(a) With $x_i \leq 10$?
(b) With $x_i \leq 8$?
(c) With $x_1 = 2x_2$?
Here is what I did:
(a) ${24\choose 4} - 5{14\choose 4}$
I did this by assigning $10$ to an $x_i$ and then going from there. I subtracted this case from the total number of cases to get the number of desired cases.
I'm thinking this should rather be ${24\choose 4} - 5{13\choose 4}$ but I am not sure...I think this because maybe I should have assigned $11$ to an $x_i$ rather than $10$ and then subtracted this from the total number of ways.
(b) $5{15\choose 3} - 4{6\choose 3}$
I'm also confused with my own work for this one. I originally assigned $8$ to an $x_i$ and got rid of this variable from consideration. Then I had $12$ remaining for $n$ and $3$ for $m$ so I had ${15\choose 3}$ outcomes. Then I subtracted the case in which another variable received $9$ or more so I assigned $9$ to another variable. And then I had $3$ remaining for $n$ and $3$ for $m$, so I had ${6\choose 3}$. Since there were $4$ candidates for the greater than $8$ votes I used ${4\choose 1}$.
(c) I really need help with this part, I'm not even sure where to start...
Without restrictions, the number of solutions of the equation $$x_1 + x_2 + x_3 + x_4 + x_5 = 20 \tag{1}$$ is $$\binom{20 + 5 - 1}{5 - 1} = \binom{24}{4}$$ as you found. The condition is violated if one of the five variables exceeds $10$. Note that at most one of the variables can exceed $10$ since $2 \cdot 11 = 22 > 20$.
Choose which of the five variables violates the condition. Since the equation is symmetric with respect to the variables, we may suppose it is $x_1$. Let $x_1' = x_1 - 11$. Then $x_1'$ is a nonnegative integer. Substituting $x_1' + 11$ for $x_1$ in equation 1 and simplifying yields $$x_1' + x_2 + x_3 + x_4 + x_5 = 9 \tag{2}$$ Equation 2 is an equation in the nonnegative integers with $$\binom{9 + 5 - 1}{5 - 1} = \binom{13}{4}$$ Hence, there are $$\binom{5}{1}\binom{13}{4}$$ solutions that violate the restrictions.
Hence, there are $$\binom{24}{4} - \binom{5}{1}\binom{13}{4}$$ admissible solutions, so your second attempt was right.
In this case, at most two of the variables could exceed the restrictions since $2 \cdot 9 = 18 < 20 < 27 = 3 \cdot 9$.
Choose which of the five variables exceeds the restriction. Since the equation is symmetric with respect to the variables, we may suppose it is $x_1$. Let $x_1' = x_1 - 9$. Then $x_1'$ is a nonnegative integer. Substituting $x_1' + 9$ for $x_1$ in equation 1 and simplifying yields $$x_1' + x_2 + x_3 + x_4 + x_5 = 11 \tag{3}$$ Equation 3 is an equation in the nonnegative integers with $$\binom{11 + 5 - 1}{5 - 1} = \binom{15}{4}$$ solutions. Hence, there are $$\binom{5}{1}\binom{15}{4}$$ cases in which one of the variables violates a restriction.
However, if we subtract this from the total, we will have subtracted too much since we have counted each case in which two of the variables violate a restriction twice, once for each way we could have designated one of the variables as the one that violates a restriction. Therefore, we need to add these cases back.
There are $\binom{5}{2}$ ways to select which two of the five variables violates a restriction. Since the equation is symmetric with respect to the variables, we may suppose they are $x_1$ and $x_2$. Let $x_1' = x_1 - 9$ and $x_2' = x_2 - 9$. Substituting $x_1' + 9$ for $x_1$ and $x_2' + 9$ for $x_2$ in equation 1 and simplifying yields $$x_1 + x_2 + x_3 + x_4 + x_5 = 2 \tag{4}$$ Equation 4 is an equation in the nonnegative integers with $$\binom{2 + 5 - 1}{5 - 1} = \binom{6}{4}$$ solutions. Thus, there are $$\binom{5}{2}\binom{6}{4}$$ cases in which two of the restrictions are violated.
By the Inclusion-Exclusion Principle, the number of admissible solutions is $$\binom{24}{4} - \binom{5}{1}\binom{15}{4} + \binom{5}{2}\binom{6}{4}$$
Consider cases.