number of p element subsets whose sum is divisible by p
Let
, where
is an odd prime. Find the number of
-element subsets of
the sum of whose elements is divisible by
.
Attempt.
Let
be the set of all the
element subsets of
. Let
denote the sum of the elements of a member
of
. Define a relation
on
as:
if
, for
. Its clear that
is an equivalence relation. Choose
such that
. Let
denote the equivalence class of
under
.
Claim:
whenever 
Proof. Let
be such that
(Such an
exists).
If
is odd put
else put
.
So in any case
is odd and
.
Now let
.
Consider a set
, where each element of
is reduced mod
if necessary.
One can easily show that
's are all distinct, thus
.
Also
, thus
.
So from each element of
we can produce one element of
.
Also, since
, it follows that two distinct elements of
don't match to a same element of
.
Replacing
with
in the above, the claim follows.
To arrive at the required answer I just need to show that
. But here I am stuck.