Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2023 / iii / Paper 160 / 1 / d / ii

The conjugate partition ${\lambda }^{\prime }$ has the same hook lengths as $\lambda$ and the opposite contents. Applying part d(i) to both diagrams and adding yields

Now sum the first identity of part d(i) over all partitions $\mu ⊢n$. Conjugation is a bijection on those partitions, so the total of ${\sum }_i({\mu }_i^{\prime }{)}^2$ equals the total of ${\sum }_i{\mu }_i^2$. Dividing the summed displayed identity by two gives