Example
† How many ways can Abigale, Bob and Charlie
Permutation and
Combination
Example
† How many ways can Abigale, Bob and Charlie
go into the room, given that one can go
through at a time and only two can be in the
room?
† Abigale then Bob, Charlie cannot get in.
† Bob then Abigale, Charlie has to be outside.
† And ?
go through the door, given that one can go
through at a time?
„ Abigale then Bob and then Charlie
„ Abigale then Charlie and then Bob
„ Bob then Abigale and then Charlie
„ Bob then Charlie and then Abigale
„ Charlie then Abigale and then Bob
„ Charlie then Bob and then Abigale
Permutation
† A permutation of a set of distinct objects is an
ordered arrangement of these objects.
† We are also interested in ordered arrangements
of some of the elements of a set.
† An ordered arrangement of r elements of a set,
which contain n elements, is called an
† r-permutation.
1
Permutation
† Let X = {x1, x2, x3, …, xn}
† A permutations of X is an ordered arrangement
of x1, x2, x3, …, xn
† An r-permutation of X where r ≤ n is an ordered
arrangement of a subset of X which has r
elements.
† The number of r-permutation of a set with n
elements is denoted by P(n, r)
Example
† What is P(3, 3)
„ The number of 3-permutation of a set with 3
elements
„ That is, how many different can we arrange if the
set has 3 distinct elements.
„ For example, a set X = {a, b, c}
„ There are 6 ordered 3-tuple we can arrange, they
are
„ (a,b,c) (a,c,b) (b,a,c) (b,c,a) (c,a,b) (c,b,a)
Example
† What is P(3, 2)
„ The number of 2-permutation of a set with 3
elements
„ That is, how many different ordered pair can we
arrange if the set has 3 distinct elements.
„ For example, a set X = {a, b, c}
„ There are 6 ordered pair we can arrange, they are
„ (a,b) (a,c) (b,c) (b,a) (c,a) (c,b)
Exercise
† How many ways can Abigale, Bob and Charlie
play Need for Speed on PS3, given that only
two can play at the same time?
† Abigale v. Bob
† Abigale v. Charlie
† Bob v. Charlie
2
The number of r-permutations The number of r-permutations
† The first element of the permutation can be † By the product rule there are
chosen in n ways, since there are n elements in „ n(n – 1)(n – 2)⋅⋅⋅(n – r + 1) r-permutation of the set.
the set.
† It follows that
† There are n – 1 ways to choose the second n!
„ P(n, r) = n(n – 1)(n – 2)⋅⋅⋅(n – r + 1) =
element of the permutation, since there are n – ( n − r )!
1 elements left.
† Similarly, there n – 2 ways to choose the third
element, and so on until …
† There are n – r – 1 ways to choose the rth
element.

Example Example
† Find P(7, 4), P(10, 5) and P(12, 3) † There are 10 athletes competing for a gold, a
„ P(7, 4) = 840 silver and a bronze medal. What are the
„ P(10, 5) = 30,240 possible outcomes if there are no ties?
„ P(12, 3) = 1,320
„ There are 3 ordered positions for 10 athletes
„ Hence there are P(10, 3) = 720 possible outcomes

3
Example Combination
† How many ways to arrange the letters A, B, C, D, E, F † An r-combination of elements of a set is an
and that the letters D, E, F are adjacent. unordered selection of r elements from the set.
† Thus, an r-combination is simply a subset of the
† We can treat D, E, F as one block
set with r elements.
† The permutation with the rest of the letters, there are
„ P(4, 4) = 24 ways
† Permutation of D, E, F within the group. There are
„ P(3, 3) = 3! = 6 ways
† Hence there are 24⋅6 = 144 ways to arrange A, B, C, D,
E, F in which D, E, F are adjacent.

The number of r-combinations Example

† Let X = {x1, x2, x3, …, xn}
† A combination of r elements of X is the
selection of r elements from X where r ≤ n
† The number of r-combinations of a set with n
distinct element is denoted by
C(n, r) or ⎛⎜⎜ ⎞⎟⎟
n
„
⎝ ⎠
r „
† What is C(3, 2)
„ The number of 2-combination of a set with 3
elements
„ That is, how many different sets of 2 can we
arrange if the set has 3 distinct elements
„ For example, a set X = {a, b, c}
There are 3 sets of 2 we can arrange, they are
† (a,b) (a,c) (b,c)

4
Example Combination
† What is C(3, 3) † The r-permutations of a set with n elements
„ The number of 3-combination of a set with 3 can be obtained by:
elements 1. forming the r-combination of the set, which can
„ That is, how many different sets of 3 can we be done in
arrange if the set has 3 distinct elements
„ P(n, r) ways.
„ For example, a set X = {a, b, c}
„ There are 1 sets of 3 we can arrange, that is
2. then ordering the elements in each
† (a,b,c) r-combination, which can be done in
„ P(r, r) ways.

Combination Example
Hence † Find the value of C(7, 4), C(10, 5) and C(12, 3)
† P(n, r) = C(n, r) ⋅ P(r, r) „ C(7, 4) = 35
= C(n, r) ⋅ r! „ C(10, 5) = 252
„ C(12, 3) = 220
† C(n, r) = P(n, r)/r!

n!
† C(n, r) =
(n − r )!r!

5
Example Theorem
† Let r, n ∈ Í and r ≤ n. Show that n

C(n, n – r) = C(n, r)
† Let n be a positive integer. Then ∑ C ( n, k ) = 2
k =0
n

Proof
There are
† C(n, n – r) = n!/((n – (n – r))! (n – r)!) „ C(n,0) subsets with zero elements
„ C(n,1) subsets with one elements
= n!/(r! (n – r)!) „ C(n,2) subsets with two elements
…
= C(n, r) „
„ C(n,n) subsets with n elements
† C(n,0) + C(n,1) + … + C(n,n) counts the number of subsets of a
set with n elements.
† A set of n elements has a total of 2n subsets.

Binomial Coefficient Example

† C(n, r) also occur as coefficient in the
expansion of powers of binomial expression
such as
„ (a + b)n
† The expansion of (x + y)3 can be found using
combinatorial reasoning.
(x + y)3 = (x + y) (x + y) (x + y)
= x3 + 3x2y + 3xy2 + y3

† Why?

6
The Binomial Theorem Example
† A binomial expression is the sum of two terms † What is the expansion of (x + y)4
such as (x + y).
Let x and y be variables, and n be a positive
4
† ( x + y ) 4 = ∑ C (4, j ) x 4− j y j
integer, Then j =0

= C ( 4,0) x + C ( 4,1) x 4−1 y + C (4,2) x 4 − 2 y 2 + C (4,3) x 4 −1 y 3 + c (4,4) y 4

4
n
( x + y ) = ∑ C ( n, j ) x
n n− j
y j

j =0 = x 4 + 4 x 3 y + 6 x 2 y 2 + 4 xy 3 + y 4
= C ( n,0) x n + C (n,1) x n −1 y + C (n,2) x n − 2 y 2 + ... + C ( n, n − 1) xy n −1 + c(n, n) y n

Pascal’s Identity Pascal’s Triangle

† Let n and k be positive integers with n ≥ k. † Pascal’s Identity is the basis for a geometric
† Then arrangement of the binomial coefficients in a
triangle.
C(n + 1, k) = C(n, k – 1) + C(n, k)
C(0,0)
C(1,0) C(1,1)
C(2,0) C(2,1) C(2,2)
C(3,0) C(3,1) C(3,2) C(3,3)
… … … … …

7
Pascal’s Triangle Example
† What is the coefficient of x12y13 in the
1 expansion of (x + y)25
1 1
1 2 1 † C(25,13) = 25!/(13! 12!) = 5,200,300
1 3 3 1
1 4 6 4 1