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COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT

LEARNING
HANDOUTS
CBM GE 4
(Mathematics in the Modern World)

PREPARED BY:

JERRY A. MABAG, MBA

Instructor
 FINAL COVERAGE

PERMUTATIONS AND
COMBINATIONS

In the previous chapters, we presented various ways of describing certain types of

statistical data in terms of central tendency and variability. In the present chapter, we shall
introduce some counting techniques that will help us handle statistical data with deeper
appreciation and, hopefully, with more confidence. Our main objective in discussing these
techniques shall be to provide a better understanding of a very fundamental concept in inferential
statistics: the concept of probability.

The Fundamental Principle of Counting

There are many situations in which a statistical investigator would need the use of some
techniques of counting in order to arrive at a number of possibilities of a number of choices
existing under certain conditions. Here are some examples:

1. A high school senior who recently won a scholarship from a large manufacturing firm
computes for the total number of ways in which he can choose a course and a school for
his college. The manufacturing firm gave him a list of four technological courses and
five schools to choose from.

2. An office secretary tries to devise a coding scheme for certain records, using the digits 1
to 4. She wants to find the total number of codes of different digits if only three of the
four digits are used.

3. A car dealer is interested in knowing how many choices a prospective buyer has, given
five different models and six colors.

4. The employee in charge of five display windows of a department store has 10 designs,
each design appropriate for a single window. She wishes to determine the total number of
arrangements possible for the ten designs.

Let us consider the problem of the office secretary (#2). Given the digits 1, 2, 3, and 4,
how many codes or numbers consisting of three different digits can be formed?

Hundreds digit Tens digit Units digit codes

2 3 123
2 4 124
3 2 132
1 3 4 134
4 2 142
4 3 143

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 1 3 213
1 4 214
2 3 1 231
3 4 234
4 1 241
4 3 243

1 2 312
1 4 314
2 1 321
3 2 4 324
4 1 341
4 2 342

1 2 412
1 3 413
4 2 1 421
2 3 423
3 1 431
3 2 432

Total codes 24

In both cases we find that multiplication seems a logical operation. For the first situation,
we can multiply together the number of choices for the hundreds digit, the number of choices for
the tens digit, and the number of choices for the units digit; that is (4) (3) (2) = 24. For the
second problem, we can multiply together the number of classifications according to educational
attainment, the number of classifications according to occupation, and the number of
classifications according to the place of work. Thus, the total number of different classifications
is (3) (4) (2) = 24.
This observation leads us to the following generalization:

The Fundamental Principle of Counting. For a group of k things, if the first can be done
independently in n1 different ways, the second can be done independently in n2 different ways, the
third can be done independently in n3 different ways, and so on, until the kth thing, then the total
number of ways in which the k things can be done in the stated order is

n1 . n2 . n3 . . . . . . . . nk.

Accordingly, the high school senior has (4)(5) or 20 different ways of choosing a
college course and a school; the department store employee can make a total (10)(9)(8)(7)(6)
or 30,240 different arrangements for the five display windows ; and a prospective customer
of the car dealer has a total of (5)(6) or 30 different choices color and model.

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(MATHEMATICS IN THE MODERN WORLD)
Example 1.

In how many ways can three coins fall two dice?

Solution.

A coin can fall in two ways; therefore three coins can fall in (2)(2)(2) or 8 ways.

HHH TTH
HHT THT
THH HTT
HTH TTT

Similarly, a die can fall in six ways; therefore two dice can fall in (6)(6) or 36 ways.

Permutations

A permutation is an arrangement of n different objects. The words rat, tar, and art are
three different permutations for the letters a, r, and t. The three other permutations for these
letters are rta, tra, and atr. There are two different permutations for two different objects, six for
three different objects, and twenty-four for four different objects. In general, the number of
permutations for the n different objects, denoted by nPr, is

n (n – 1(n – 2)…..(3)(2)(1) or n! (read “n factorial”).

The symbol n! is used to designate the product of all the integers from 1 to n. Thus,
1! = 1
2! = 2 (2)(1)
3! = 6 (3)(2)(1)
4! = 24 (4)(3)(2)(1)
5 = 120 (5)(4)(3)(2)(1), etc.
Permutation is an ordered arrangement of n different objects.

formula:

nPr = n!__
(n – r)!

n – refer to the set of different objects

r – number of objects taken

Example 1.

In how many ways can 4 boys and 3 girls be seated in a row of 5 chairs?

Solution.

P =
7 5 7! (7)(6)(5)(4)(3)(2)(1) = 5,040 = 2,520
2! (2)(1) 2

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CBM GE 4
(MATHEMATICS IN THE MODERN WORLD)
Example 2.

In how many ways can three of ten students participating in an inter-school contest be
ranked first, second, and third?

Solution.

P = 10! (10)(9)(8)(7)(6)(5)(4)(3)(2)(1) = 3,628,800 = 720

10 3
7! (7)(6)(5)(4)(3)(2)(1) 5,040

Example 3.

How many distinct permutations can be formed from the letters of the word
STATISTICS?

Solution.

The letters S and T, each appears 3 times, I appears twice, A once, and C once. The
number of permutations is

P = 10!__ (10)(9)(8)(7)(6)(5)(4)(3)(2)(1) = 3,628,800 = 50,400

3!3!2! (6)(6)(2) 72

3! (3)(2)(1) = 6
3! (3)(2)(1) = 6
2! (2)(1) = 2

Chapter test

Evaluate:

1. P + 5P3 + 5P4
5 2

2. P + 7P4 + 7P5 + 7P6

7 3

3. In how many ways can the judges in the Mutya ng Pilipinas pageant choose
the Philippine representatives to the Miss World and Miss Asia beauty
contests from among 10 finalists?

COMBINATIONS are a collection of data with no definite arrangements.

Formula:

nCr = n!____
(n – r)! r!

Example 1.

In how many ways can a committee of 4 be chosen from a group of 8 people?

Solution.

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 8C4 = 8! __ = 70
4!4!

Example 2.

In how many ways can we select 2 spades and 3 diamonds from a deck of 52 cards?

Solution

The number of ways can we select 2 from the 13 spades is

13C2 = 13!___ = 78
11!2!

and the number of ways in which we can select 3 from the 13 diamonds is
13C3 = 13! __ = 286
10!3!

By the Fundamental Principle of Counting, the total number of selections is

13C2.13C3 = (78)(286) = 22,308.

Example 3.

A box contains 5 red, 4 blue, and 3 white balls. In how many ways can we select 3 balls
such that

a. they are of different colors?

b. they are all red?
c. two are blue and one is white?
d. exactly 2 are blue?
e. none is blue

Solution.

a. 5C1.4C1.3C1 = (5) (4) (3) = 60

b. 5C3 = 10

c. 4C2.3C1 = (6) (3) = 18

d. 4C2.8C1 = (6) (8) = 48

e. 8C3 = 56

Chapter Test

Evaluate:

1. 6C2 + 6C3 + 6C4

2. 8C3 + 8C4 + 8C5 + 8C6

3. There are 10 people in a room. If each of them shakes hands with each of the
other 9, how many handshakes are there?

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CBM GE 4
(MATHEMATICS IN THE MODERN WORLD)
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CBM GE 4
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PROBABILITY is a number between 0 and l inclusive associated with the likelihood of
occurrence of a given event.

Types of Probability

1. the subjective or personalistic approach

2. the relative frequency or empirical approach
3. the classical or a priori approach

Subjective probability is a personal assessment of the likelihood of occurrence of an

event, based on all evidence available. It is appropriate when the person making the judgment
finds that there is only one opportunity for the event to occur and it will either occur or not occur
at that particular instant. A doctor, for example, may use subjective probabilities to assess the
chances that a certain patient afflicted with a rate disease will survive the operation.

The subjective approaches is called for when one has very little or no direct evidence
regarding the occurrence of an event and he has no choice but to use intuition and certain
subjective factors.

Empirical probability is defined as the proportion of times that a particular outcome

occurs in a very large number of observations or experiments. It is the relative frequency of an
event in past occurrences. If we get the IQ scores of a random sample of 1,000 students in our
school and find that for every 100 students, one has an IQ score of 150, using the empirical
approach to probability theory, we would be justified in saying that the probability that a
randomly chosen student of our school has an IQ score of 150 is 1/100 or .01.

Experiment is defined as an activity which can be done repeatedly under similar

conditions, and which can result in an outcome. Tossing a coin is an experiment involving two
outcomes, head or tail. Since the sum of the probabilities of the different outcomes of an
experiment is equal to 1, we have

P (head) = 1 , P (tail) = 1
2 2

We now define classical probability as follows: If an experiment can result in N equally

likely outcomes and an event E can result in n outcomes, then the probability that E will occur
is n . More formally,
N

P(E) = n(E)
N

Where n(E) = number of sample points in E.

N = total number of sample points in the sample space

Example l.

Two candidates, A and B, are running for public office. If the probability that A will win
is .35, what is the probability that B will win?

Solution.

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(MATHEMATICS IN THE MODERN WORLD)
 P(B) = P(A) = 1 – P(A) = 1 - .35 = .65

Example 2.

Find the probability of getting an even number from a single toss of a die.

Solution.

Sample space = (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6), N=6

Event = (2, 4, 6), n(E) = 3

P (even number) = 3 or 1
6 2

Example 3.

A pair of dice is tossed, find the probability of obtaining a sum of 7.

Solution.

By the Fundamental Principle of Counting, we know that a pair of dice

can result in 6 x 6 or 36 ways (N=36). The event corresponds to six sample
points, namely: (1,6), (6,1), (2,5), (5,2), (3,4), (4,3). Hence,

P (sum of 7) = 6 or 1
36 6

1,1 2,1 3,1 4,1 5,1 6,1

1,2 2,2 3,2 4,2 5,2 6,2

1,3 2,3 3,3 4,3 5,3 6,3

1,4 2,4 3,4 4,4 5,4 6,4

1,5 2,5 3,5 4,5 5,5 6,5

1,6 2,6 3,6 4,6 5,6 6,6

Example 4.

If a card is drawn from an ordinary deck, find the probability of drawing

a. an ace
b. a spade
c. a face card

Solution.

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CBM GE 4
(MATHEMATICS IN THE MODERN WORLD)
 An ordinary deck consists of 52 cards (N=52), of which 4 are aces, 13 are spades and 12
are face cards.

a. P (ace) = 4 or 1
52 13

b. P (spade) = 13 or 1
52 4

c. P (face card) = 12 or 3
52 13

Example 5.

A box contains 5 red, 4 blue, and 3 white balls. If a ball is chosen at random, what is the
probability that

a. it is not red?
b. it is not white?

Solution.

The box has twelve balls (N=12).

a. P (not red) = 1 – P(red) = 1 - 5 = 7

12 12

b. P(not white) = 1 – P(white) = 1 - 3 = 9 or 3

12 12 4

FINAL EXAMINATION

***good luck***

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CBM GE 4
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