PERMUTATION

Activity 1: Can you show me the way?

A. A close friend invited Anna to her birthday party. Anna has 4 new blouses (stripes, with
ruffles, long-sleeved, and sleeveless) and 3 skirts (red, pink, and black) in her closet
reserved for such occasions.
1. Assuming that any skirt can be paired with any blouse. In how many ways can Anna
select her outfit? List the possibilities.
2. How many blouse-and-skirt pairs are possible?
3. Show another way of finding the answer in item 1.

B. Suppose you secured your bike using a combination lock. Later, you realized that you
forgot the 4-digit code. You only remembered that the code contains the digits 1, 3, 4 and
7.
1. List all the possible codes out of the given digits.
2. How many possible codes are there?
3. What can you say about the list you made?

Activity 2: Count Me In!

Answer the following questions:
1. Ten runners join in a race. In how many possible ways can they be arranged as first,
second, and third placers?
2. If June has 12 T-shirts, 6 pairs of pants, and 3 pairs of shoes, how many possibilities
can he dress himself up for the day?
3. In how many ways can Aling Rosa arrange 6 potted plants in a row?
4. How many four-digit numbers can be formed from the numbers 1, 3, 4, 6, 8 and 9 if
repetition of digits is not allowed?
5. If there are 3 roads from Town A to Town B and 4 roads from Town B to Town C, in
how many ways can one go from Town A to Town C and back to Town A, through Town
B, without passing through the same road twice?
6. Suppose that in a certain association, there are 12 elected members of the Board of
Directors. In how many ways can a president, a vice-president, a secretary, and a
treasurer be selected from the board?
7. In how many ways can you place 9 different books on a shelf if there is space enough
for only 5 books.
8. you want to order your lunch from the school canteen, which offers student meals
consisting of 1 cup of rice, 1 meat dish, and 1 vegetable dish. How many choices do you
have for your meal if there are 3 choices for meat dishes and 2 choices of vegetable
dishes?
9. In how many ways can 5 people arrange themselves in a row for picture taking?
10. A dress-shop owner has 8 new dresses that she wants to display in the window. If the
display window has 5 mannequins, in how many ways can she dress them up?

Activity 3: Does order matter?

Take a second look at the 10 situations in Activity 2. Determine if in doing the activity or
task, arrangement or order of selecting the objects is important, that is, whether a different
order or arrangement means a different result.
Questions:
1. In which situation in Activity 2 is order or arrangement of the selection important?
2. Justify your answer by giving an example for each situation.
3. In performing a certain task where order or arrangement is important, what do you call
each possible arrangement?

Activity 4: Warm That Mind Up!

Solve for the unknown in each item. (Show you solutions.)
1. P(6,6) = _____ 6. P(8,r) = 6720
2. P(7,r) = 840 7. P(8,3) = _____
3. P(n,3) = 60 8. P(n,4) = 3024
4. P(n,3) = 504 9. P(12,r) = 1320
5. P(10,5) = _____ 10. P(13,r) = 156

Activity 5: Mission Possible

Answer each permutation problem completely. (with solutions)
1. A teacher wants to assign 4 different tasks to her 4 students. In how many ways can
she do it?
2. In how many different ways can 5 bicycles be parked if there are 7 available parking
spaces.
3. How many distinguishable permutations are possible with all the letters of the word
ELLIPSES?
4. Find the number of different ways that a family of 6 can be seated around a circular
table with 6 chairs.
5. If there are 10 people and there are only 6 chairs are available, in how many ways can
they be seated?

Activity 6: Decisions from Permutations

Answer each permutation problem completely. (with solutions)
1. There are 4 different Mathematics books and 5 different Science books. In how many
ways can the books be arranged on a shelf if:
a. there are no restrictions?
b. books of the same subject must be placed together?
c. if they must be placed alternately?
2. There are 12 people in a dinner gathering. In how many ways can the host (one of the
12) arranged his guest around a dining table if:
a. they can sit on any of the chairs?
b. 3 people insist on sitting beside each other?
c. 2 people refuse to sit beside each other?

Activity 7: Reason Out

Answer each permutation problem completely.
1. How do you determine if a situation or problem involves permutations?
2. Differentiate between permutation in general (n objects taken r at a time), circular
permutation, and distinguishable permutation (when some objects are alike).
3.
a. Find the number of permutations of n objects when arranged (𝑛 − 1) at a time
for any positive integer n.
b. Fine the number of permutations of n objects when taken all at a time.
c. Compare the two (a and b). Explain why the answers still make sense.
COMBINATION
Activity 1: Put Some Order Here
Study the tasks or activities below, and then answer the questions below.
1. Choosing 5 questions to answer out of 10 questions in a test.
2. Opening a combination lock.
3. Winning in a contest.
4. Selecting 7 people to form a Student Affairs Committee.
5. Forming triangles from 6 distinct points in which no 3 points are collinear.
6. Assigning seats to guests at dinner.
7. Drawing a set of 6 numbers in a lottery containing numbers 1 to 45.
8. Entering the PIN (Personal Identification Number) of your ATM Card.
9. Selecting 3 posters to hang out of 6 different posters.
10. Listing the elements of subsets of a given set.

Questions:
1. In which task/activities above is order or arrangement important? Write only the
number. Explain why?

2. In which tasks/activities is order NOT important? Write only the number. Explain why?

Activity 2: Perfect Combination

Study the following situations. Identify which situations illustrate permutation and which
illustrate combination.
__________1. Determining the top three winners in a Science Quiz Bee
__________2. Forming lines from six given points with no three of which are collinear
__________3. Forming triangles from seven given points with no three of which are
collinear
__________4. Four people posing for pictures
__________5. Assembling a jigsaw puzzle
__________6. Choosing two household chores to do before dinner
__________7. Selecting five basketball players out of ten team members for the different
positions
__________8. Choosing three of your classmates to attend your party
__________9. Picking six balls from a basket of 12 balls
_________10. Forming a committee of five members from 20 people
Activity 3: Flex That Brain!
Solve for the unknown in each item. (Show you solutions.)
1. C(8,3) = ____ 6. C(10,r) = 120
2. C(n,4) = ____ 7. C(n,2) = 78
3. C(8,r) = 28 8. C(11,r) = 165
4. C(9,9) = ____ 9. C(8,6) = ____
5. C(n,3) = 35 10. C(14,10) = ____

Activity 4: I know Them So Well

Answer the following questions completely.
1. How do you determine if a situation involves combinations?
2. DAMATH is a board game that incorporates mathematical skills in the Filipino game
Dama. In a school DAMATH tournament, there are 28 participants who are divided into 7
groups. Each participant plays against each member of his group in the eliminations. The
winner in each group advances to the semi-finals where they again will compete. The five
players with the greatest number of wins proceed to the final round and play against each
other. Assume that there are no ties.
a. What is the total number of games to be played in the eliminations?
b. How many matches will be played in the final round?
c. In how many possible ways can the top five players in the semi-finals come up?
d. In how many possible ways can the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd placer be declared in the
final round?
e. How many matches will be payed altogether?

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