The Pigeonhole Principle

If 𝑘 is a positive integer and (𝑘 + 1) or more objects are

placed into 𝑘 𝑏𝑜𝑥𝑒𝑠 , then there is 𝑎𝑡 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑡 one box
containing two or more of the objects.

Example 1 If there are 11 players in a soccer team that

wins 12-0, there must be at least one player in the team
who scored at least twice.

Example 2: If you have 6 classes from Monday to Friday,

there must be at least one day on which you have at least
two classes.
1
 THE GENERALIZED PIGEONHOLE
PRINCIPLE

If 𝑁 objects are placed into 𝑘 boxes, then there is at least one

box containing at least 𝑁/𝑘 objects.

Example 1: In our 60-student class, at least 12 students will

get the same letter grade (A, B, C, D, or F).

Example 2: What is the minimum number of students

required in a discrete mathematics class to be sure that at least
six will receive the same grade, if there are five possible
grades A, B, C, D, and F?. 2
Example 3
How many cards must be selected from a standard deck of 52
cards to guarantee that three cards of the same suit are
selected?
How many must be selected from a standard deck of 52 cards
to guarantee that all hearts are selected?

Example 4
During a month with 30 days, a baseball team plays at least
one game a day, but no more than 45 games. Show that there
must be a period of some number of consecutive days during
which the ream must play exactly 14 games.
3
 Permutations and Combinations

Many counting problems can be solved by finding the

number of ways to arrange a specified number of
distinct elements of a set of a particular size, where
the order of these elements matters or not.
1. How many ways are there to pick a set of 3 people
from a group of 6?
2. In how many ways can we select three students
from a group of 5 to stand in line for a picture?

4
 PERMUTATIONS
A permutation of a set of distinct objects is an ordered
arrangement of these objects.

An ordered arrangement of r elements of a set is called an

r-permutation.

Example:
Let S = {1, 2, 3}.
a) The 2-permutations of S are:
b) Permutations of S are:

5
 PERMUTATIONS
The number of r-permutations of a set with n distinct elements is
denoted by 𝑷(𝒏, 𝒓).

Theorem:
If 𝑛 is a positive integer and r is an integer with 1 ≤ 𝑟 ≤ 𝑛, then there
are
𝑃(𝑛, 𝑟) = 𝑛(𝑛 – 1)(𝑛 – 2)  … (𝑛 – 𝑟 + 1)
r-permutations of a set with n distinct elements.

Corollary
𝑛!
If n and r are integers with 1 ≤ 𝑟 ≤ 𝑛 then 𝑃(𝑛, 𝑟) =
𝑛−𝑟 !

6
 Examples
1. Suppose that there are eight runners in a race. The
winner receives a gold medal, the second-place finisher
receives a silver medal, and the third-place finisher
receives a bronze medal. How many different ways are
there to award these medals, if all possible outcomes of
the race can occur and there are no ties?

2. How many permutations of the letters ABCDEFGH

contain the string ABC?

7
 COMBINATIONS
An r-combination of elements of a set is an unordered
selection of r elements from the set.
Thus, an r-combination is simply a subset of the set with r
elements.
The number of r-combinations of a set with n distinct
elements is denoted by 𝑪(𝒏, 𝒓).

Example: Let 𝑆 = {1, 2, 3, 4}.

Then {1, 3, 4} is a 3-combination from S.
The 2-combinations of S are:

8
 COMBINATIONS
Theorem
The number of 𝑟 − 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑏𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 of a set with
𝑛 elements, where 𝑛 is a nonnegative integer and 𝑟 is an
integer with 0 ≤ 𝑟 ≤ 𝑛, equals
𝑛!
𝐶 𝑛, 𝑟 =
𝑟! 𝑛 − 𝑟 !

Corollary.
Let 𝑛 and 𝑟 be nonnegative integers with 𝑟 ≤ 𝑛. Then
𝐶(𝑛, 𝑟) = 𝐶(𝑛, 𝑛 − 𝑟)

9
 Example

1. How many ways are there to select five players from a

10-member tennis team to make a trip to a match at
another school?

2. A soccer club has 8 female and 7 male members. For

today’s match, the coach wants to have 6 female and 5
male players on the grass. How many possible
configurations are there?

10
 PASCAL’S IDENTITY

Let 𝑛 and 𝑘 be positive integers with 𝑛 > 𝑘.

Then 𝐶(𝑛 + 1, 𝑘) = 𝐶(𝑛, 𝑘 – 1) + 𝐶(𝑛, 𝑘).

•How can this be explained?

11
 Pascal’s Triangle
•In Pascal’s triangle, each number is the sum of the
numbers to its upper left and upper right:

1
1 1
1 2 1
1 3 3 1
1 4 6 4 1
… … … … … …

12
 Pascal’s Triangle
Since we have 𝐶(𝑛 + 1, 𝑘) = 𝐶(𝑛, 𝑘 – 1) + 𝐶(𝑛, 𝑘) and
𝐶(0, 0) = 1, we can use Pascal’s triangle to simplify the
computation of 𝐶(𝑛, 𝑘):

C(0, 0) = 1
C(1, 0) = 1 C(1, 1) = 1
n
C(2, 0) = 1 C(2, 1) = 2 C(2, 2) = 1
C(3, 0) = 1 C(3, 1) = 3 C(3, 2) = 3 C(3, 3) = 1
C(4, 0) = 1 C(4, 1) = 4 C(4, 2) = 6 C(4, 3) = 4 C(4, 4) = 1

13
 Binomial Coefficients
• A binomial expression is the sum of two terms, such as (a + b).
𝑛
• Expressions of the form 𝐶 𝑛, 𝑘 = 𝑘 are also called binomial
coefficients because these numbers occur as coefficients in the
𝑛
expansion of power of the binomial expressions such as 𝑎 + 𝑏

The BINOMIAL theorem. Let x and y be variables, and let n be a

nonnegative integer. Then:
𝒏
𝒏
𝒏 𝒏−𝒋 𝒋
𝒙+𝒚 =෍ 𝒋 𝒙 𝒚
𝒋=𝟎
𝒏 𝒏 𝒏 𝒏−𝟏 𝒏 𝒏 𝒏
= 𝒙 + 𝒙 𝒚 + ⋯+ 𝒙𝒚𝒏−𝟏 + 𝒚
𝟎 𝟏 𝒏−𝟏 𝒏

14
 Example

1. What is the expansion of 𝑥 + 𝑦 4 ?

2. What is the coefficient of 𝑥12 𝑦13 in the
expansion of 𝑥 + 𝑦 25 ?

3. What is the coefficient of 𝑥12 𝑦13 in the

expansion of 2𝑥 − 3𝑦 25

15
 COROLLARIES

𝑛
1. Let n be a nonnegative integer. Then σ𝑛𝑘=0 𝑘
= 2𝑛

𝑛
2. Let n be a nonnegative integer. Then σ𝑛𝑘=0 −1 𝑘
𝑘
=0

𝑛
3. Let n be a nonnegative integer. Then σ𝑛𝑘=0 2𝑘 𝑘 = 3𝑛

16
 COMBINATORICS
• Section 6.1 – The Basics of Counting
Ex. 1-16, 20-37, 44-51, 54-57, 65, 69, 75,76
• Section 6.2 – The Pigeonhole Principle
Ex. 1-9,11,15,17,18,21,37,43,46
• Section 6.3 – Permutations and Combinations
Ex. 10-22, 25, 28, 32, 42-44
• Section 6.4 Binomial Coefficients and Identities
Ex. 1-19, 28-33
17
 Discrete Probability

1. Introduction to discrete probability

2. Probability Theory
3. Bayes’ theorem

18
 Discrete Probability

▪ An experiment is a procedure that yields one of a

given set of possible outcomes.

▪ The sample space of the experiment is the set of

possible outcomes

▪ An event is a subset of the sample space

19
 Discrete Probability

▪ Def. If S is a finite nonempty sample space of

equally likely outcomes, and E is an event, that is, a
𝐸
subset of S, then the probability of E is 𝑝(𝐸) =
𝑆

▪ Probability values range from 0 (for an event that will

never happen) to 1 (for an event that will always
happen whenever the experiment is carried out).
20
Example I:
An urn contains 4 blue balls and 5 red balls. What
is the probability that a ball chosen at random
from the urn is blue?

Example II:
What is the probability that when two dice are
rolled, the sum of the numbers on the two dice is
7?
21
Example III:
What is the probability of winning the lottery 6/49,
that is, picking the correct set of six numbers out
of 49?

22
 Complimentary Events

Theorem 1. Let E be an event in a sample space S.

The probability of an event 𝐸ത = 𝑆 − 𝐸, the
complimentary event of E, is given by
ത = 1– 𝑝(𝐸).
𝑝(𝐸)

•This rule is useful if it is easier to determine the

probability of the complimentary event than the
probability of the event itself.
23
 Complimentary Events
Example:
A sequence of 10 bits is randomly generated. What
is the probability that at least one of these bits is
zero?

Example:
What is the probability that at least two out of 36
people have the same birthday?
24
 Union of Events
Theorem 2. Let 𝐸1 and 𝐸2 be events in the sample
space S.
Then we have:
𝑝 𝐸1 ∪ 𝐸2 = 𝑝 𝐸1 + 𝑝 𝐸2 − 𝑝(𝐸1 ∩ 𝐸2 )

Does this remind you of something?

25
 Discrete Probability
Example:
What is the probability of a positive integer
selected at random from the set of positive
integers not exceeding 100 to be divisible by 2 or
5?

26
 CW
• What is the probability that a five-card poker hand contains the two of
diamonds and the three of spades? (ex 10 pg. 475)
• What is the probability that a five-card poker hand contains exactly one
Ace?
• What is the probability that a five-card poker hand contains a flush, that is,
five cards of the same suit?
• What is the probability that a player of a lottery wins the prize offered for
correctly choosing five (but not six) numbers out of six integers chosen at
random from the integers between 1 and 40, inclusive?

Section 7.1 – An Introduction to Discrete Probability

Ex. 1-34, 36-37, 42
27