Counting Principles

Fundamental Counting Principle

If one event can occur in m ways and a second event can
occur in n ways, the number of ways the two events can
occur in sequence is m· n. This rule can be extended
for any number of events occurring in a sequence.

Example:
A meal consists of a main dish, a side dish, and a dessert.
How many different meals can be selected if there are 4
main dishes, 2 side dishes and 5 desserts available?
# of main # of side # of
dishes dishes desserts
4  2  5 = 40
There are 40 meals available.
Larson & Farber, Elementary Statistics: Picturing the World, 3e 41
Fundamental Counting Principle
Example:
Two coins are flipped. How many different outcomes are
there? List the sample space.

Start
1st Coin
Tossed
Heads Tails 2 ways to flip the coin
2nd Coin
Tossed
Heads Tails Heads Tails 2 ways to flip the coin

There are 2  2 = 4 different outcomes: {HH, HT, TH, TT}.

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Fundamental Counting Principle
Example:
The access code to a house's security system consists of 5
digits. Each digit can be 0 through 9. How many different
codes are available if
a.) each digit can be repeated?
b.) each digit can only be used once and not repeated?
a.) Because each digit can be repeated, there are 10
choices for each of the 5 digits.
10 · 10 · 10 · 10 · 10 = 100,000 codes
b.) Because each digit cannot be repeated, there are 10
choices for the first digit, 9 choices left for the second
digit, 8 for the third, 7 for the fourth and 6 for the fifth.
10 · 9 · 8 · 7 · 6 = 30,240 codes
Larson & Farber, Elementary Statistics: Picturing the World, 3e 43
 Example

If there are 3 different colors of paint (red, blue,

green) that can be used to paint 2 different types
of toy cars (race car, police car), then how many
different toys can there be?

Larson & Farber, Elementary Statistics: Picturing the World, 3e 44

 Example

A tree diagram of the different possibilities

Paint Car Possibilities

Race Red Race Car

Red
Police Red Police Car
Race Blue Race Car
Blue
Police Blue Police Car
Race Green Race Car
Gree
Police Green Police Car
n

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 Permutations
A permutation is an ordered arrangement of objects. The n
umber of different permutations of n distinct objects is n!.
“n factorial”

n! = n · (n – 1)· (n – 2)· (n – 3)· …· 3· 2· 1

Example:
How many different surveys are required to cover all
possible question arrangements if there are 7 questions in
a survey?

7! = 7 · 6 · 5 · 4 · 3 · 2 · 1 = 5040 surveys

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Permutation of n Objects Taken r at a Time

The number of permutations of n elements taken r at

a time is
n! .
n Pr  (n  r)!
# in the
group # taken from
the group

Example:
You are required to read 5 books from a list of 8. In how
many different orders can you do so?

Pr  8 P5  8!  8! = 8  7  6  5  4  3  2  1  6720 ways
n
(8  5)! 3! 3  2 1

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 Example

An inspector randomly selects 2 of 5

parts for inspection. In a group of 5
parts, how many permutations of 2
parts can be selected?

5! 5! (5)(4)(3)(2)(1) 120
P 
2
5
   20
(5  2)! 3! (3)(2)(1) 6

Again let the parts be designated A, B, C, D, E. Thus we

could select:

AB BA AC CA AD DA AE EA BC CB BD DB BE
EB CD DC CE EC DE and ED

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 Example
Suppose a computer requires 8 characters for a
password. The first character must be a letter,
but the remaining seven characters can be
either a letter or a digit (0 thru 9). The
password is not case-sensitive. How many
passwords are possible on this computer?

26 • 367 = 2.037 x 1012

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 Distinguishable Permutations
The number of distinguishable permutations of n objects,
where n1 are one type, n2 are another type, and so on is
n! , where n1  n2  n3   nk  n.
n1 !  n2 !  n3 !nk !
Example:
Jessie wants to plant 10 plants along the sidewalk in her
front yard. She has 3 rose bushes, 4 daffodils, and 3 lilies.
In how many distinguishable ways can the plants be
arranged?
10! 10  9  8  7  6  5  4!

3!4!3! 3!4!3!
 4,200 different ways to arrange the plants
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 Example

How many different vertical arrangements are

there of 9 flags if 4 are white, 3 are blue and 2
are red?

9! 9•8•7•6•5•4! 9•8•7•6•5
----------- = ------------------ = --------------- = 1260
4!•3!•2! 4!•3!•2! 3•2•1•2•1

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Combination of n Objects Taken r at a Time
A combination is a selection of r objects from a group of n
things when order does not matter. The number of
combinations of r objects selected from a group of n objects is
n!
nC r  .
# in the (n  r)! r !
collection
# taken from
the collection
Example:
You are required to read 5 books from a list of 8. In how
many different ways can you do so if the order doesn’t
matter? 8! = 8  7  6  5!
8C 5 =
3!5! 3!5!
= 56 combinations
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 Example

If there are 8 researchers and 3 of them are to

be chosen to go to a meeting, how many different
groupings can be chosen?

8  7  6  5  4  3  2 1 87 6
8C3    56
( 3  2  1)  ( 5  4  3  2  1) 3  2 1

Larson & Farber, Elementary Statistics: Picturing the World, 3e 53