Permutations
Permutations
Permutations
Definition……
Permutation – an arrangement of
objects in a specific order.
Order Matters!
Example……
How many ways can Answer:
you arrange 3
people for a picture?
3 2 1 6
Note: You are using
all 3 people
Factorial……
This is the same as Using the previous
using a factorial: example:
3! 3 2 1 6
Example……
Suppose a business Answer:
owner has a choice of 5
locations in which to
establish her business.
5! 5 4 3 2 1 120
She decides to rank
them from best to least
according to certain Note: She ranked ALL
criteria. How many 5 locations.
different ways can she
rank them?
What if she only Answer:
wanted to rank the
top 3? 5 4 3 60
This is no longer a
factorial problem
because you don’t
rank ALL of them.
Permutation Rule……
where n = total # of
n!
n Pr
objects and r = how
many you need.
(n r )!
“n objects taken r at a
time”
Remember the This is a
business woman permutation:
who only wanted to
rank the top 3 out of
5 places?
5! 5! 120
5 P3 60
5 4 3 60 (5 3)! 2! 2
Example……
A TV news director Answer:
wishes to use 3
news stories on the
evening news. She
wants the top 3 8 P3 336
news stories out of
8 possible. How
many ways can the
program be set up?
Example……
How many ways can Answer:
a chairperson and
an assistant be
selected for a
project if there are 7 7 P2 42
scientists available?
Example……
How many different Answer:
ways can I arrange
3 box cars selected
from 8 to make a
train? 8 P3 336
Example……
How many ways can Answer:
4 books be arranged
on a shelf if they
can be selected from
9 books? 9 P4 3024
A factorial is also a
permutation……
How many ways can You can do 4! or
4 books be arranged you can set it up as
on a shelf? a permutation.
Answer:
4 P4 24
Note……
0! = 1
and
1! = 1
Order Words……
How many ways can I
Listen
Sing
Read
1st/2nd/etc
Pres/Vice-Pres
Chair/Assistant
Eat
Special Permutation when
letters must repeat……
Example: How many permutations of
the word seem can be made?
Since there are 4 letters, the total
possible ways is 4! IF each “e” is
labeled differently. Also, there are 2!
Ways to permute e1e2. But, since they
are indistinguishable, these duplicates
must be eliminated by dividing by 2!.
How many Answer:
permutations of the
word seem can be 4!
made? 12
2!
This leads to another permutation
rule when some things repeat……
n!
n Pr
k1!k2!k3!...k p !
Permutations of 2: Combinations of 2:
AB CA AB
AC CB AC
AD CD AD
BA DA BC
BC DB BD
BD DC CD
Note: AB is NOT the Note: AB is the
same as BA. same as BA
When different orderings of the
same items are counted
separately, we have a permutation
problem, but when different
orderings of the same items are
not counted separately, we have a
combination problem.
Combination Rule……
n!
C
(n r )!r!
n r
Note: He is NOT
interested in a specific
order.
Example……
In a club there are 7 Answer:
women and 5 men. A
committee of 3 women C3 5 C2 35 10 350
and 2 men is to be 7
4W,1M: 7 C4 5 C1 175
5W,0M: 7 C5 5 C0 21
0W,5M: 7 C0 5 C5 11 1
1W,4M: 7 C1 5 C4 7 5 35