The following problem arises in quantum mechanics (see Chapter 13, Problem 7.21). Find the number of ordered triples of nonnegative integers a, b, c whose sum a+b+c is a given positive integer n. (For example, if n = 2, we could have (a, b, c) = (2, 0, 0) or (0, 2, 0) or (0, 0, 2) or (0, 1, 1) or (1, 0, 1) or (1, 1, 0).) Hint: Show that this is the same as the number of distinguishable distributions of n identical balls in 3 boxes, and follow the method of the diagram in Example 5.

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The following problem arises in quantum mechanics (see Chapter 13, Problem 7.21). Find the number of ordered triples of nonnegative integers a, b, c whose sum a+b+c is a given positive integer n. (For example, if n = 2, we could have (a, b, c) = (2, 0, 0) or (0, 2, 0) or (0, 0, 2) or (0, 1, 1) or (1, 0, 1) or (1, 1, 0).) Hint: Show that this is the same as the number of distinguishable distributions of n identical balls in 3 boxes, and follow the method of the diagram in Example 5.

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