Week 5: Permutations and Combinations

Section…………………………………………………………………………………………… Page

Section 1: Permutation with Distinct and Indistinct Objects…...………………………………... 2

Section 2: Binomial Theorem and Numbers………………………………………………………5

Section 3: Combination with Identities ………..…………………………………….……………7

Section 4: Pascal Identity and Pascal Triangle ……………………………………………………8

Section 5: Other Combination with Identities ………….………………………………………...10

Section 6: Combination with Indistinct Objects ………………………………….........................11

Bibliography ……………………………………………………………………………………...13

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 Section 1: Permutation with Distinct and Indistinct
Objects

Given a set of numbers 1,2,3,4 or a set of any other objects such as letters a, b, c, d, two types of
questions may rise such as: how many ways can we arrange the numbers 1,2,3,4 or the objects a, b, c, d,
where in each arrangement, each number or object appear not more than once? How many ways can we
arrange these numbers or objects where any of the numbers or objects may appear more than once in
any arrangement? To be able to answer these two questions, we need to learn permutation with distinct
and indistinct objects.

Permutation with Distinct Objects

A permutation of all or some distinct objects of a given set is an ordered arrangement of them (distinct
objects).

And the formula for calculating a number of permutations of distinct objects as defined above is
generally given by
𝑛!
𝑃𝑛𝑟 =
(𝑛 − 𝑟)!

Where,

𝑛: Is a number of all objects in a given set on which to carry out permutation.

𝑟: Is a number of objects to be permuted from a given set. And 𝑟 ≤ 𝑛.

𝑛!: Pronounced as n factorial, is defined by 𝑛! = 𝑛(𝑛 − 1)(𝑛 − 2)(𝑛 − 3) … 3 ⋅ 2 ⋅ 1

0! = 1

Example 1.1

Determine the following

i) 𝑃53
ii) 𝑃𝑛0
iii) 𝑃𝑛1
iv) 𝑃𝑛𝑛

Solutions 1.1

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 5! 5! 5∗4∗3∗2!
i) 𝑃53 = (5−3)! = 2! = = 5 ∗ 4 ∗ 3 = 60
2!
𝑛! 𝑛!
ii) 𝑃𝑛0 = (𝑛−0)! = 𝑛! = 1
𝑛! 𝑛! 𝑛(𝑛−1)!
iii) 𝑃𝑛1 = (𝑛−1)! = (𝑛−1)! = (𝑛−1)!
=𝑛
𝑛! 𝑛! 𝑛!
iv) 𝑃𝑛𝑛 = (𝑛−𝑛)! = = = 𝑛! = 𝑛(𝑛 − 1)(𝑛 − 2)(𝑛 − 3) … 3 ∗ 2 ∗ 1
0! 1

Example 1.2

In a race of 20 runners, give the number of ways the first place finisher can be given a gold medal,
the second place finisher can be given a silver medal and the third place finisher can be given a
bronze medal provided that not more than one contestants come out for each place.

Solution 1.2

This is about finding the number of ways the three medals may be won by only three different
contestants out of 20. It is about a number of ways of selecting (or arranging) 3 out of 20 in an
ordered way and it will be done as:
3 20! 20∗19∗18∗17!
𝑃20 = (20−3)! = = 20 ∗ 19 ∗ 18 = 6 840
17!

So, there are 6 840 ways the first place finisher can be given a gold medal, the second place finisher
can be given a silver medal and the third place finisher can be given a bronze medal out of 20
contestants.

Example 1.3

Give the number of ordered arrangements for three balls of which one is blue in colour, the other is
red and the other third one is brown.

Solution 1.3
3! 3! 3 ∗ 2 ∗ 1
𝑃33 = = = = 3 ∗ 2 ∗ 1 = 6 𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑟𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠
(3 − 3)! 0! 1!

Permutation with Indistinct Objects

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 In the immediate previous subtopic, we are from looking at the number of ways we can arrange or
select r objects out of the n available ones; we assumed that each objected appeared once in the
arrangement and that 𝑟 ≤ 𝑛.

Under permutation with indistinct objects, we will look at the number of ways we can arrange 𝑟 objects
of the available 𝑛 objects and assume that an object in the arrangements may appear more than once
(may be repeated) and that in this way it is also possible to have 𝑟 > 𝑛.

Therefore, the number of permutations of r objects out of n distinct objects with repetition allowed is
given by

𝑃𝑛𝑟 = 𝑛𝑟

Suppose we are to permute n objects in which 𝑛1 objects is the repetition of one object, 𝑛2 is the
number another object is repeated… and 𝑛𝑘 is the number of appearances for one and the same other
object. In this way, the number of ways we can permute these n objects is given by

𝑛 ,𝑛2 ,…,𝑛𝑘 𝑛!
𝑃𝑛 1 =
(𝑛1 !)(𝑛2 !)(𝑛3 !) … (𝑛𝑘 !)

Example 1.4

Find the number of distinct permutations that can be made from the characters of the following words

i) FLORIDA
ii) MISSISSIPPI

Solution 1.4

i) Since there are no repeated characters in the word FLORIDA, we solve this exercise by
finding the permutation of 7 distinct objects:
7! 7!
𝑃77 = = = 7! = 5040
(7 − 7)! 0!
ii) In the word MISSISSIPPI, the letter M appears 1 time, I appears 4 times, S appears 4 times
and P appears 2 times, therefore the number of distinct permutations will be determined by
1,4,4,2 11! 11 ∗ 10 ∗ 9 ∗ 8 ∗ 7 ∗ 6 ∗ 5 ∗ 4! 11 ∗ 10 ∗ 9 ∗ 8 ∗ 7 ∗ 6 ∗ 5
𝑃11 = = =
1! ⋅ 4! ⋅ 4! ⋅ 2! 1! ⋅ 4! ⋅ 4! ⋅ 2! 4! ⋅ 2!
11 ∗ 10 ∗ 9 ∗ 8 ∗ 7 ∗ 6 ∗ 5
= = 11 ∗ 5 ∗ 9 ∗ 2 ∗ 7 ∗ 5 = 34 650
4∗3∗2∗1∗2∗1

Example 1.5

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 How many strings of 6 characters (where some or all characters repeated) can be formed from the set
{a, b, c, d}

Solution 1.5

Forming strings of 6 characters out of a set with 4 characters definitely means that there will be
repetitions of characters; therefore, the number of permutations will be calculated by

𝑃46 = 46 = 4096

Section 2: Binomial Theorem and Numbers

Combinations
Unlike permutation, combination is the selection of 𝑟 distinct objects from the set of 𝑛 distinct objects
but where the order in which the 𝑟 objects are arranged is not considered.

The number of combinations of 𝑟 distinct objects chosen from 𝑛 distinct objects is calculated by
𝑛!
𝐶𝑛𝑟 = , 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑟 ≤ 𝑛
𝑟! (𝑛 − 𝑟)!
The relationship between combinations and permutations is given by
𝑃𝑛𝑟
𝐶𝑛𝑟 =
𝑟!

Example 2.1

i) Evaluate 𝐶73
ii) A committee of 4 students is to be formed from a selected group consisting of 5 freshmen
and 6 sophomores.
a) How many committees of 2 freshmen and 2 sophomores are possible?

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 b) How many committees with exactly 3 sophomores are possible?
c) How many committees with at least 3 freshmen are possible?

Solution 2.1
7! 7! 7∗6∗5∗4! 7∗6∗5
i) 𝐶73 = 3!(7−3)! = 3!⋅4! = = 3∗2∗1 = 7 ∗ 5 = 35
3!⋅4!
5! 6 5! 6!
ii) a) 𝐶52 ⋅ 𝐶62 = 2!(5−2)! ⋅ 2!(6−2)! = 2!⋅3! ⋅ 2!⋅4! = 5 ∗ 2 ∗ 3 ∗ 5 = 150
5! 6! 5! 6!
b) 𝐶51 ⋅ 𝐶63 = 1!(5−1)! ⋅ 3!(6−3)! = 1!⋅4! ⋅ 3!⋅3! = 5 ∗ 5 ∗ 4 = 100
5! 6! 5! 6! 5! 6! 5! 6!
c) 𝐶53 ⋅ 𝐶61 + 𝐶54 ⋅ 𝐶60 = 3!(5−3)! ⋅ 1!(6−1)! + 4!(5−4)! ⋅ 0!(6−0)! = 3!⋅2! ⋅ 1!⋅5! + 4!⋅1! ⋅ 0!⋅6!
= 5 ∗ 2 ∗ 6 + 5 ∗ 1 = 60 + 5 = 65

The Binomial Theorem

A binomial is a polynomial having two terms; for example: 2𝑥 + 3.

As multiplying a binomial expression by itself 2 to 3 times is much easier to solve using some
distributive property, multiplying it by itself several more times would be cumbersome and take a lot
more of time; that is the difficulty the binomial theorem comes in to make simple.

Theorem

Given that 𝑥 and 𝑦 are the two terms of the binomial expression and 𝑛 a nonnegative integer,
multiplying a binomial 𝑥 + 𝑦 by itself 𝑛 times can be represented by

(𝑥 + 𝑦)𝑛 = ∑𝑛𝑘=0 𝐶𝑛𝑘 𝑥 𝑛−𝑘 𝑦 𝑘

The combinatorial expression 𝐶𝑛𝑘 is in this case called a binomial coefficient because this number will
occur as a coefficient in the simplification (expansion) of the binomial expression (𝑥 + 𝑦)𝑛 .

Example 2.2

Simplify the following binomial expression

(𝑥 + 5)5

Solution 2.2

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 5

(𝑥 + 5)5 = ∑ 𝐶5𝑘 𝑥 5−𝑘 5𝑘

𝑘=0
= 𝐶50 𝑥 5−0 50 + 𝐶51 𝑥 5−1 51 + 𝐶52 𝑥 5−2 52 + 𝐶53 𝑥 5−3 53 + 𝐶54 𝑥 5−4 54 + 𝐶55 𝑥 5−5 55
5! 5! 5! 5! 5!
= 𝑥5 + 𝑥4 ⋅ 5 + 𝑥 3 ⋅ 25 + 𝑥 2 ⋅ 125 + 𝑥 ⋅ 625
0! (5 − 0)! 1! (5 − 1)! 2! (5 − 2)! 3! (5 − 3)! 4! (5 − 4)!
5!
+ ⋅ 3125
5! (5 − 5)!
= 𝑥 5 + 25𝑥 4 + 250𝑥 3 + 1250𝑥 2 + 3125𝑥 + 3125

What we are just from doing with simplifying (𝑥 + 5)5 is called binomial expansion.

Section 3: Combination with Identities

Here, we will look at three identities involving combinations that are most useful in solving/
simplifying combinatorial expressions. We will also look at their proofs.

 For n a nonnegative integer, we have

𝑛

∑ 𝐶𝑛𝑘 = 2𝑛
𝑘=0
This is the same as having the 𝑥 and 𝑦 terms equated to 1 in the binomial expression (𝑥 + 𝑦)𝑛 .

Proof:
𝑛 𝑛

2𝑛 = (1 + 1)𝑛 = ∑ 𝐶𝑛𝑘 1𝑘 1𝑛−𝑘 = ∑ 𝐶𝑛𝑘

𝑘=0 𝑘=0

 For n a nonnegative integer, we have

𝑛

∑(−1)𝑘 𝐶𝑛𝑘 = 0
𝑘=0
This is the same as having the 𝑥 and 𝑦 terms equated to -1 and 1 respectively in the binomial
expression (𝑥 + 𝑦)𝑛 .

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 Proof:
𝑛 𝑛 𝑛
𝑛 𝑛
0 = 0 = ((−1) + 1) = ∑ 𝐶𝑛𝑘 (−1)𝑘 1𝑛−𝑘 = ∑ 𝐶𝑛𝑘 (−1)𝑘 = ∑(−1)𝑘 𝐶𝑛𝑘
𝑘=0 𝑘=0 𝑘=0

 For n a nonnegative integer, we have

𝑛

∑ 2𝑘 𝐶𝑛𝑘 = 3𝑛
𝑘=0
This is the same as having the 𝑥 and 𝑦 terms equated to 2 and 1 respectively in the binomial
expression (𝑥 + 𝑦)𝑛 .

Proof:
𝑛 𝑛 𝑛
𝑛 𝑛
3 = (2 + 1) = ∑ 𝐶𝑛𝑘 2𝑘 1𝑛−𝑘 = ∑ 𝐶𝑛𝑘 2𝑘 = ∑ 2𝑘 𝐶𝑛𝑘
𝑘=0 𝑘=0 𝑘=0

Section 4: Pascal Identity and Pascal Triangle

The Pascal’s Triangle

Binomial coefficients play a very vital role in formation of a Pascal’s triangle.

The Pascal’s triangle is a triangle where for the determination of the values to be composed in the
triangle we have: the 𝑛𝑡ℎ row of the triangle consists of all the values 𝐶𝑛𝑟 , where 𝑛 ≥ 0 and 0 ≤ 𝑟 ≤ 𝑛.
The triangle will therefore be given by

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 𝑅𝑜𝑤
𝐶00 0
𝐶10𝐶11 1
𝐶20 𝐶21 𝐶22 2
𝐶3 𝐶3 𝐶32 𝐶33
0 1
3
𝐶40 𝐶41 𝐶42 𝐶43 𝐶44 4
⋮ ⋮ ⋮ ⋮ ⋮ ⋮ ⋮
𝐶𝑛0 1 2
𝐶𝑛 𝐶𝑛 … 𝐶𝑛 𝑛−2 𝑛−1
𝐶𝑛 𝐶𝑛𝑛 𝑛

Evaluating the binomial coefficients, we the following Pascal’s triangle

𝑅𝑜𝑤
1 0
1 1 1
2 11 2
1
3 3 1 3
1 4 6 4 1 4
⋮ ⋮ ⋮ ⋮ ⋮ ⋮ ⋮

The Pascal’s Identity

When we observe the Pascal’s triangle figure, we will conclude that the outer edges are ones (1s) and
that is true. Therefore, the Pascal’s identity is a formula that helps us calculate any element that is not
on the outer edge of the triangle and this formula is given by
𝑘−1 𝑘
𝐶𝑛𝑘 = 𝐶𝑛−1 + 𝐶𝑛−1

Where, 1 ≤ 𝑘 ≤ 𝑛 − 1

Example 4.1

Use the Pascal’s identity to calculate the Pascal’s triangle values in row 𝑛 = 2

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 Solution 4.1

We have 𝐶00 = 1 as the only value where 𝑛 = 0, 𝐶10 = 1 and 𝐶11 = 1 as values where 𝑛 = 1.

Given that the Pascal’s identity is

𝑘−1 𝑘
𝐶𝑛𝑘 = 𝐶𝑛−1 + 𝐶𝑛−1

The values where 𝑛 = 2 are

𝐶20 = 1, 𝐶21 = 𝐶10 + 𝐶11 = 1 + 1 = 2 and 𝐶22 = 1

Section 5: Other Combination with Identities

In this subsection, we will look at Vandermonde’s identity and other identities that involve combination
coefficients.

Vandermonde’s Identity

Given nonnegative integers 𝑚, 𝑛 and 𝑟 where 𝑟 ≤ 𝑚, 𝑟 ≤ 𝑛, we have the identity

𝑟
𝑟 𝑟−𝑘 𝑘
𝐶𝑚+𝑛 = ∑ 𝐶𝑚 𝐶𝑛
𝑘=0

It is the identity which was discovered by the Mathematician Alexandre-Theophile Vandermonde in the
18𝑡ℎ century and we will look at other identities which were formed using the Vandermonde’s identity.

Other Identities
 For a nonnegative integer n, we have
𝑛
𝑛
𝐶2𝑛 = ∑(𝐶𝑛𝑘 )2
𝑘=0

Proof:
Using Vandermonde’s identity where 𝑚 = 𝑟 = 𝑛, we have

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 𝑛 𝑛
𝑛 𝑛
𝐶2𝑛 = 𝐶𝑛+𝑛 = ∑ 𝐶𝑛𝑛−𝑘 𝐶𝑛𝑘 = ∑(𝐶𝑛𝑘 )2
𝑘=0 𝑘=0
Where 𝐶𝑛𝑘 = 𝐶𝑛𝑛−𝑘 .

 Theorem

For nonnegative integers n and r with 𝑟 ≤ 𝑛, we have the identity

𝑛
𝑟+1
𝐶𝑛+1 = ∑ 𝐶𝑗𝑟
𝑗=𝑟

Example 5.1

Prove the identity

𝑛
𝑟+1
𝐶𝑛+1 = ∑ 𝐶𝑗𝑟
𝑗=𝑟

Solution 5.1
𝑛+1 𝑛+1−1 𝑛 𝑛
𝑟+1
𝐶𝑛+1 = ∑ 𝑟
𝐶𝑘−1 = ∑ 𝑟
𝐶𝑘−1 = ∑ 𝑟
𝐶𝑘−1 = ∑ 𝐶𝑗𝑟
𝑘=𝑟+1 𝑘−1=𝑟+1−1 𝑘−1=𝑟 𝑗=𝑟

because we have 𝑟 + 1 ≤ 𝑘 ≤ 𝑛 + 1 and we replaced 𝑘 − 1 by 𝑗.

Section 6: Combination with Indistinct Objects

The number of ways we can have the combinations of r objects taken from the set with n distinct
objects where repetition is allowed can be calculated using the formula

𝑟
(𝑟 + 𝑛 − 1)! (𝑟 + 𝑛 − 1)! 𝑛−1
𝐶𝑟+𝑛−1 = = = 𝐶𝑟+𝑛−1
𝑟! (𝑟 + 𝑛 − 1 − 𝑟)! 𝑟! (𝑛 − 1)!

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 Example 6.1

How many ways can six cookies be chosen from the shop with four different kinds of cookies assuming
that only the type of cookie, and not the individual cookies or the order in which they are chosen,
matters?

Solution 6.1

6
9! 9 ∗ 8 ∗ 7 ∗ 6! 9 ∗ 8 ∗ 7
𝐶4+6−1 = 𝐶96 = 𝐶93 = = = = 84 𝑤𝑎𝑦𝑠
3! (9 − 3)! 3! ∗ 6! 3∗2∗1

Example 6.2

How many ways are there to place 10 indistinct balls into eight distinct bins?

Solution 6.2

10 10
17!
𝐶8+10−1 = 𝐶17 = = 19 448 𝑤𝑎𝑦𝑠
10! (17 − 10)!

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 Bibliography

Gersting J. L. (2014). Mathematical Structures for Computer Science (7th ed.).

W.H. Freeman and Company.

Rosen K. H. (2011). Discrete Mathematics and its applications (7th ed.).

McGraw Hill Education (India) Private Limited

Susanna S. E. (2010). Discrete Mathematics with Applications. (4th ed.).

Brooks/Cole Cengage Learning

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