We consider pyramids made of one-dimensional pieces of fixed integer length $a$ and which may have pairwise overlaps of integer length from $1$ to $a$. We give a combinatorial proof that the number of pyramids of size $m$, i.e., consisting of $m$ pieces, equals $\binom{am-1}{m-1}$ for each $a \geq 2$. This generalises a well known result for $a=2$. A bijective correspondence between so-called right (or left) pyramids and $a$-ary trees is pointed out, and it is shown that asymptotically the average width of pyramids equals $\sqrt{\frac{\pi}{2} a(a-1)m}$.
Discrete Mathematics & Theoretical Computer Science
