Permutations and Combinations

Fundamental Counting Principal If there are n items

and ways to choose the fist item
a Az ways to select
the second item after the first item is chosen and
so on there are a a Az o o An ways to choose
n items It is best to use factorials when using the
If
Fundamental Counting Principal
5
n factorial n is defined as follows 5.4.3 2.1

SEI n n n 1 n 2 3 2 i 51 120
the exception 0 I 1 1
Permutations A selection of a of objects in
group
which order is important The number of
permutations of n objects taken r at a time
is given
by
13 135
Pr Pi
Fal Iratatine
or
chg isnt at tEIisogs Ifa lemEnnid
A motorcycle license plateconsists of 5 digits that
are randomly selected
e No digit is repeated what is
the probability of getting a license plate consisting
of all even digits nn Yampuspan p
The sample space the number of permutations
n s is
of 5 digits selected from 10 items
tofu n s Is 54
10 9.87 6
5133,1
Sdigits n 5 10 9 8 7 6 30,210
The event space n A is the number of permutations of
a license plate with all even digits
find
n A Pg
g 054 5 4 3 2 1 120
even
P A IT o 004
 A combination is a selection of objects from a
group in which order is not important The number
of combinations of n r time
objects taken at a is
given by Ks'sIn s a
CI
riff
or
520
There are 4 boys and 8 girls on the debate team
the coachrandomly chooses 3 of the students to
participate in a competition What is the probability
that the coach chooses all girls
The sample space n s is the number of
combinations of 12 students taken 3 at a time
s
13 17
3,14
220
31 31 3

Theevent space n A is the number of combinations

of 8 girls taken 3 at a time
A
n
3 3 11454 56

P A 2 0
255 25.5

In standard deck of 52 playing cards there are

a
4 suits with clubs and spades as black cards and
diamonds and hearts as red cards If 4 cards
are drawn randomly
E
from
combinationthe red26half what is the
total 3
probability that they will be all diamonds
combinations
Thesample space n s is the number of
of 26 cards taken 4 at a time
 4 n s C
thus
card 4421 215533.22
7

Event A is the number of combinations

14950
of 13 diamonds
taken 4 at a time
otters

94
A 715
C
1321
4
i cards

PCA
RI 1 6
0478 4.8

you flip a coin 10 times What is the probability youget

at most 3 heads 2 sides
fundamental counting principle to find
Use thechoices n s
f
n 5 2.2.2 2.2 2.2.2 2 2 210 1024
F
n A
E3 82 1 t
fo
II t
Ia otto

I É 54.9554
194 14
45 10 1 176
PCA 1719 17 2
YES Foy