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1 . Consider strings consisting of the characters $a$, $b$, and $c$. Such a string is called valid, if no two consecutive characters are equal. Thus, $abacbac$ is valid, whereas $abaccac$ is not valid.
Let $n \geq 1$ be an integer and let $V_n$ be the number of valid strings of length $n$. Which of the following is true?
(a)
None of the above.
(b)
$V_n = 3^n - (n - 1) \cdot 3$
(c)
$V_n = 3 \cdot 2^{n-1}$
(d)
$V_n = 3^n - (n - 1) \cdot 3 \cdot 3^{n-2}$