Introduction
Burnside's lemma counts objects up to symmetry. Instead of trying to choose one representative from every symmetry class, it asks an easier question for each symmetry: how many objects stay unchanged?
The average number of fixed objects is exactly the number of different equivalence classes.
Problem or motivation
We color the positions of a circular necklace using colors. Two colorings are considered the same if one can be rotated to become the other. Count the distinct necklaces modulo . Assume .