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Permutation and Combination

The document discusses permutation and combination. It provides examples to illustrate the rule of product and rule of sum. The rule of product states that if there are 'm' ways to do one thing and 'n' ways to do another, the total number of ways of doing both is 'm x n'. The rule of sum states that if things cannot be done together, the total number of ways is 'm + n'. It then provides examples and solves questions to demonstrate calculating combinations and permutations.

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Arushi Verma
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88 views4 pages

Permutation and Combination

The document discusses permutation and combination. It provides examples to illustrate the rule of product and rule of sum. The rule of product states that if there are 'm' ways to do one thing and 'n' ways to do another, the total number of ways of doing both is 'm x n'. The rule of sum states that if things cannot be done together, the total number of ways is 'm + n'. It then provides examples and solves questions to demonstrate calculating combinations and permutations.

Uploaded by

Arushi Verma
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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PERMUTATION AND COMBINATION

Permutation – selecting and arranging

Combination only selecting

Rule of Product: If there are ‘m’ ways to do something and there are ‘n’ ways to
do another, then the total number of ways of doing both things is ‘m x n’.

To elaborate this with an example, assume that you have 4 T-shirts and 2
Jeans. The total number of ways in which you can decide what to wear is 4 x 2
= 8.

In case you are wondering ‘Why is it 8?’, the logic is pretty simple. With every
T-shirt, you have a choice between the two Jeans. This is illustrated below:

Choices of dress: T1J1, T1J2, T2J1, T2J2, T3J1, T3J2, T4J1 and T4J2

An assumption here is that you are not bothered with trivialities such as
dressing-sense. Because if you are, then the decision of which jeans to wear
with respect to a t-shirt will not be an independent decision. The formula of ‘m
x n’ ways is valid if and only if the decisions are independent of each other.

In case the decisions are not independent, then you would have to take care
of the restrictions which are applicable.

Rule of Sum: If there are ‘m’ ways to do something and there are ‘n’ ways to do
another and we cannot do both at the same time, then there are ‘m +n’ ways to
choose one of the actions.

To elaborate this with an example, assume that you have 5 Formal Shoes and
3 Cowboy Boots. The total number of ways in which you can decide your
footwear is 5 + 3 = 8.

In case you are wondering ‘Why is it 8?’, the logic is pretty simple. You can
either wear Formal Shoes or Cowboy Boots but not both. The choices are
illustrated below.
Question 1: You have 4 T-shirts, 2 Jeans, 6 Sarees, 5 Formal Shoes and 3
Cowboy boots. In how many ways can you decide what to wear?

–          The answer for this is (4 x 2 + 6) x (5 + 3) = 14 x 8 = 112 ways.

I hope the logic behind the answer would be clear to you by now.

Continuing with the same idea, try to answer this question.

Question 2: You have 50 students in a class and you have to select three out
those for the posts of President, Vice-President and General Secretary. In how
many ways can you do that?

–          The President can be any one of the 50 students. Suppose you choose
X.

The Vice-President can be any of the remaining 49 students (Not X). Suppose
you choose Y.

The General Secretary can be any of the remaining 48 students (Not X or Y).

So, the total number of ways in which you can decide the students for the
positions are = 50 x 49 x 48.

Question 3: In how many ways can you select and arrange ‘r’ items out of ‘n’
distinct items?

The 1st item can be selected in ‘n’ ways.

The 2nd item can be selected in ‘n – 1’ ways.

The 3rd item can be selected in ‘n – 2’ ways.

The rth item can be selected in ‘n – r + 1’ ways.

So, the total number of ways of selecting and arranging ‘r’ items out of ‘n’
distinct items is:
As you can realize, this is a difficult formula to remember. To take care of the
same, multiply (n-r)! to both the numerator and the denominator.

Does the above formula look familiar? If not, just scroll up and see what n P
r is.

Question 4: In how many ways can you arrange ‘r’ items?

–          The 1st item can be selected in ‘r’ ways.

The 2nd item can be selected in ‘r – 1’ ways.

The 3rd item can be selected in ‘r – 2’ ways.

The rth item can be selected in ‘r – (r – 1)’ ways or simply put, 1 way.

So, the total ways of arranging ‘r’ items is:

Question 5: In how many ways can you select ‘r’ items out of ‘n’ distinct
items?

–          From Question 3, I know that the number of ways of selecting and
arranging is n P r.

From Question 4, I know that the number of ways of just arranging is r!

Selecting and Arranging are independent decisions, so


The above equation not only gives us the formula for n C r, but it also gives us
a very important relationship n P r = n C r x r!

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