APPLICATIONS

OF PERMUTATION
TO DAILY LIFE

An Activity in Mathematics 10

Submitted to:
Mrs. Jennifer Geralde

Submitted by:
Ashley L. Lawas
Grade 10 Kepler
 INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
In mathematics, the notion of permutation relates to the act of arranging all
the members of a set into some sequence or order, or if the set is already
ordered, rearranging (reordering) its elements, a process called permuting.
These differ from combinations, which are selections of some members of
a set where order is disregarded. For example, written as tuples, there are
six permutations of the set {1,2,3}, namely: (1,2,3), (1,3,2), (2,1,3), (2,3,1),
(3,1,2), and (3,2,1). These are all the possible orderings of this three
element set. As another example, an anagram of a word, all of whose
letters are different, is a permutation of its letters. In this example, the
letters are already ordered in the original word and the anagram is a
reordering of the letters. The study of permutations of finite sets is an
important topic in the fields of combinatorics and group theory. (See the
articles symmetric group and permutation group for more details on the role
in group theory.)
Permutations are studied in almost every branch of mathematics. They also
appear in many other fields of science. In computer science they are used
for analyzing sorting algorithms, in quantum physics for describing states of
particles and in biology for describing RNA sequences.
The number of permutations of n distinct objects is n factorial, usually
written as n!, which means the product of all positive integers less than or
equal to n.
In algebra, and particularly in group theory, a permutation of a set S is
defined as a bijection from S to itself. That is, it is a function from S to S for
which every element occurs exactly once as an image value. This is related
to the rearrangement of the elements of S in which each element s is
replaced by the corresponding f(s). For example, the permutation (3,1,2)
mentioned above is described by the function.
The collection of such permutations form a group called the symmetric
group of S. The key to this group's structure is the fact that the composition
of two permutations (performing two given rearrangements in succession)
results in another rearrangement. Permutations may act on structured
objects by rearranging their components, or by certain replacements
(substitutions) of symbols.
In elementary combinatorics, the k-permutations, or partial permutations,
are the ordered arrangements of k distinct elements selected from a set.
When k is equal to the size of the set, these are the permutations of the
set.
Permutations and combinations, the various ways in which objects from a
set may be selected, generally without replacement, to form subsets. This
selection of subsets is called a permutation when the order of selection is a
factor, a combination when order is not a factor.
There are basically two types of permutation:
 Repetition is Allowed: such as the lock above. It could be "333".
 No Repetition: for example the first three people in a running race.
You can't be first and second.
 
1. Permutations with Repetition
These are the easiest to calculate.
When a thing has n different types ... we have n choices each time!
For example: choosing 3 of those things, the permutations are:
n × n × n 
(n multiplied 3 times)
More generally: choosing r of something that has n different types, the
permutations are:
n × n × ... (r times)
(In other words, there are n possibilities for the first choice, THEN there
are n possibilites for the second choice, and so on, multplying each time.)
Which is easier to write down using an exponent of r:
n × n × ... (r times) = nr
2. Permutations without Repetition
In this case, we have to reduce the number of available choices each time.
The factorial function (symbol: !) just means to multiply a series of
descending natural numbers. Examples:
4! = 4 × 3 × 2 × 1 = 24
7! = 7 × 6 × 5 × 4 × 3 × 2 × 1 = 5,040
1! = 1
So, when we want to select all of the billiard balls the permutations are:
16! = 20,922,789,888,000
But when we want to select just 3 we don't want to multiply after 14. How
do we do that? There is a neat trick: we divide by 13!
16 × 15 × 14 × 13 × 12 ...13 × 12 ...  =  16 × 15 × 14
The 13 × 12 × ... etc gets "cancelled out", leaving only 16 × 15 × 14.
B. Problem of the Study

What is the significance of permutation to our daily lives?

Why do we need to learn permutation?

C. Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the study is to be able to learn how important permutation

is to everyone. Despite having not taught about the exact reason why this
is being added to the DepEd curriculum, I am aware that there is a reason
why this is being taught to us.

D. Key Terms

 Permutation
 Combination
 Factorial
 DISCUSSION
A. Definition of Terms

 Permutation
relates to the act of arranging all the members of a set into some
sequence or order, or if the set is already ordered, rearranging
(reordering) its elements, a process called permuting.
 Combination
are selections of some members of a set where order is disregarded
 Factorial
is the product of all positive integers less than or equal to n.

B. Examples
Example 1:
If five digits 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 are being given and a three digit code has to be
made from it if the repetition of digits is allowed then how many such codes
can be formed.

Solution:
As repetition is allowed, we have five options for each digit of the code.
Hence, the required number of ways code can be formed is, 5×5×5 = 125.

Example 2:
If three alphabets are to be chosen from A, B, C, D and E such that
repetition is not allowed then in how many ways it can be done?
Solution:
The number of ways three alphabets can be chosen from five will be,

35P=5!(5−3)! = 5×4×3×2×12×1 = 60.

Hence, there are 60 possible ways.

Example 3:
In how many ways can the letters of the word APPLE can be rearranged?

Solution:

Total number of alphabets in APPLE = 5.

Number of repeated alphabets = 2

Number of ways APPLE can be rearranged = 5!2! = 60.

The word APPLE can be rearranged in 60 ways.

Example 4:
10 students have appeared in a test in which the top three will get a prize.
How many possible ways are there to get the prize winners?

Solution:
We need to choose and arrange 3 persons out of 10. Hence, the number of
possible ways will be

310P = 10!(10−3)! = 10×9×8 = 720.

Example 5:

Ellie want to change her password which is ELLIE9 but with same letters
and number. In how many ways she can do that?

Solution:

Total number of letters = 6.

Repeated letters = 2 Ls and 2 Es.

Number of times ELLIE9 can be rearranged = 6!2!2! = 6×5×3×2×1 = 180.

But the password need to be changed. So, the number of ways new
password can be made = 180−1=179.
C. The Use of Permutation and Combination in Daily
Life
Application Areas of Combinatorics

Communication networks, cryptography and network security

Permutations are frequently used in communication networks and parallel
and distributed systems . Routing different permutations on a network for
performance evaluation is a common problem in these fields. Many
communication networks require secure transfer of information, which
drives development in cryptography and network security . This area has
recently become particularly significant because of the increased use of
internet information transfers. Associated problems include protecting the
privacy of transactions and other confidential data transfers and preserving
the network security from attacks by viruses and hackers. Encryption
process involves manipulations of sequences of codes such as digits,
characters, and words. Hence, they are closely related to combinatorics,
possibly with intelligent encryption process. For example, one common
type of encryption process is interchanging--i.e., permuting parts of a
sequence . Permutations of fast Fourier transforms are employed in speech
encryption 

Computer architecture

Design of computer chips involves consideration of possible permutations

of input to output pins. Field-programmable interconnection chips provide
user programmable interconnection for a desired permutation .
Arrangement of logic gates is a basic element for computer architecture
design 

Computational molecular biology

This field involves many types of combinatorial and sequencing problems
such as atoms, molecules, DNAs, genes, and proteins  One-dimensional
sequencing problems are essentially permutation problems under certain
constraints.

Languages

Both natural and computer languages are closely related to combinatorics .

This is because the components of these languages, such as sentences,
paragraphs, programs, and blocks, are arrangements of smaller elements,
such as words, characters, and atoms. For example, a string searching
algorithm may rely on combinatorics of words and characters. Direct
applications of this can include word processing and databases. Another
important application area is performance analysis of these string
searching algorithms. The study of computability--what we can compute
and how it is accomplished--draws heavily on combinatorics.

Pattern analysis

In a broad sense, all the above-mentioned areas can be viewed as special

cases of pattern analysis. Molecular biology, for example, studies patterns
of atoms, molecules, and DNAs whereas languages treat patterns of
sentences, words, and strings. Patterns can have many other forms; for
example, visual images, acoustic signals, and other physical quantities
such as electrical, pressure, temperature, etc., that appear in engineering
problems. Patterns can also be abstract without any associated physical
meaning. These patterns may be represented in various ways such as
digital, analog, and other units. Some of these types of patterns can be
associated with combinatorics. There has been extensive research on
combinatorial pattern matching (Combinatorial, 1992-2005). Computer
music can be a specialized application domain of combinatorics of acoustic
signals.

Scientific discovery
For certain types of knowledge discovery problems, generation of
combinatorial sequences may become necessary in the process of yielding
candidate solutions. For example, in scientific discovery, we may want to
have a sequence of plausible chemical/biological reactions and their
formations . In each step of the sequence, we may generate combinatorial
sequences of chemical/biological radicals, bases, and molecular
compounds as candidate solutions and may select the most likely ones
under certain rules and constraints. In another example, certain areas of
mathematics, such as graph theory and number theory, may generate
combinatorial sequences as candidate solutions.

Databases and data mining

Queries in databases are multiple join operations that are permutations of

the constituent join operations. Determining an optimal permutation that
gives minimum cost is a common and important problem . Data mining or
knowledge discovery in databases is a relatively new field that aims at
distilling useful information, often from large databases. In this area,
techniques employing symbolic AI can manipulate combinatorial
sequences of atoms or information elements. Non-symbolic knowledge
discovery techniques, such as genetic algorithms and genetic
programming, most commonly deal with solutions in the form of sequences
of bits, digits, characters, and sometimes Lisp program elements. Neural
networks, another domain of non-symbolic AI, sometimes deal with
combinatorial patterns. Knowledge discovery techniques under uncertainty,
such as Bayesian networks, Dempster-Shafer theory, fuzzy logic, and
rough set theory, may have combinatorial solutions 

Operations research

Many optimization problems in operations research (OR) involve

combinatorics. The job scheduling problem is essentially a sequencing
problem to determine the order of jobs to be processed in an effort to
minimize the total time, cost, etc. Here, jobs can be in a computer system,
network, or processing plant. Many problems involving graphs or networks
also deal with the order of vertices and edges. The traveling salesperson
problem is to determine the order of cities to be visited to minimize the total
distance . The shortest path problem of a graph is to determine a sequence
of edges, the total length of which is minimum. Oftentimes, these problems
are computationally difficult--e.g., NP-complete or NP-hard--and, therefore,
require extensive research.

Simulation
Permutations and combinations can be employed for simulations in many
areas. Permutations representing various genotype-phenotype
associations are employed in genetics simulations (Doerge and Churchill,
1996). Other areas that employ permutations and combinations for
simulations include networks, cryptography, databases and OR.

Homeland security
This is a very specialized problem domain that has become a major
national challenge after 9/11. To confront this challenge, many intelligent
computing techniques have been applied, including intelligent pattern
analyses of human faces, X-ray images, chemical components, data from a
distributed network of wireless sensors, etc. Natural language processing
and data mining techniques have been applied to sift through and monitor
the tremendous

Accumulation of electronic communication data. 

Since combinatorics are extensively applied to these intelligent computing
techniques, there is a wide spectrum of potentials for the national security
issue. Some specific examples may include string searching algorithms
and their performance analysis in communication data, pre- and post-
analysis of combinatorial sequences of information elements, and
combinatorial pattern matching.
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