Counting

Chapter 6
Chapter Summary
● The Basics of Counting
● The Pigeonhole Principle
● Permutations and Combinations
● Binomial Coefficients and Identities
● Generalized Permutations and Combinations
● Generating Permutations and Combinations (not yet
included in overheads)
The Basics of Counting
Section 6.1
Section Summary
● The Product Rule
● The Sum Rule
● The Subtraction Rule
● The Division Rule
● Examples, Examples, and Examples
● Tree Diagrams
Basic Counting Principles: The
Product Rule
The Product Rule: A procedure can be broken down
into a sequence of two tasks. There are n1 ways to do
the first task and n2 ways to do the second task. Then
there are n1·n2 ways to do the procedure.

Example: How many bit strings of length seven are

there?
Solution: Since each of the seven bits is either a 0 or a
1, the answer is 27 = 128.
The Product Rule
Example: How many different license plates can be
made if each plate contains a sequence of three
uppercase English letters followed by three digits?
Solution: By the product rule,
there are 26 · 26 · 26 · 10 · 10 · 10 = 17,576,000
different possible license plates.
Counting Functions
Counting Functions: How many functions are there from a set
with m elements to a set with n elements?
Solution: Since a function represents a choice of one of the n
elements of the codomain for each of the m elements in the
domain, the product rule tells us that there are n · n · · · n = nm
such functions.

Counting One-to-One Functions: How many one-to-one functions

are there from a set with m elements to one with n elements?
Solution: Suppose the elements in the domain are a1,
a2,…, am. There are n ways to choose the value of a1 and n−1 ways
to choose a2, etc. The product rule tells us that there are
n(n−1) (n−2)···(n−m +1) such functions.
Product Rule in Terms of Sets
● If A1, A2, … , Am are finite sets, then the number of
elements in the Cartesian product of these sets is the
product of the number of elements of each set.
● The task of choosing an element in the Cartesian
product A1 ⨉ A2 ⨉ ··· ⨉ Am is done by choosing
an element in A1, an element in A2 , …, and an
element in Am.
● By the product rule, it follows that:
|A1 ⨉ A2 ⨉ ··· ⨉ Am |= |A1| · |A2| · ··· · |Am|.
Basic Counting Principles: The Sum
Rule
The Sum Rule: If a task can be done either in one of n1 ways or in
one of n2 ways to do the second task, where none of the set of n1
ways is the same as any of the n2 ways, then there are n1 + n2
ways to do the task.
Example: The mathematics department must choose either a
student or a faculty member as a representative for a university
committee. How many choices are there for this representative if
there are 37 members of the mathematics faculty and 83
mathematics majors and no one is both a faculty member and a
student.
Solution: By the sum rule it follows that there are 37 + 83 = 120
possible ways to pick a representative.
The Sum Rule in terms of sets.
● The sum rule can be phrased in terms of sets.
|A ∪ B|= |A| + |B| as long as A and B are disjoint
sets.
● Or more generally,

|A1 ∪ A2 ∪ ··· ∪ Am |= |A1| + |A2| + ··· + |Am|

when Ai ∩ Aj = ∅ for all i, j.
● The case where the sets have elements in common will
be discussed when we consider the subtraction rule and
taken up fully in Chapter 8.
Combining the Sum and Product Rule
Example: Suppose statement labels in a programming
language can be either a single letter or a letter
followed by a digit. Find the number of possible
labels.
Solution: Use the product rule.
26 + 26 · 10 = 286
Counting Passwords
● Combining the sum and product rule allows us to solve more complex problems.
Example: Each user on a computer system has a password, which is six to eight characters
long, where each character is an uppercase letter or a digit. Each password must contain at
least one digit. How many possible passwords are there?

Solution: Let P be the total number of passwords, and let P6, P7, and P8 be the passwords of
length 6, 7, and 8.
● By the sum rule P = P6 + P7 +P8.
● To find each of P6, P7, and P8 , we find the number of passwords of the specified length
composed of letters and digits and subtract the number composed only of letters. We find that:

P6 = 366 − 266 =2,176,782,336 − 308,915,776 =1,867,866,560.

P7 = 367 − 267 =
78,364,164,096 − 8,031,810,176 = 70,332,353,920.
P8 = 368 − 268 =
2,821,109,907,456 − 208,827,064,576 =2,612,282,842,880.

Consequently, P = P6 + P7 +P8 = 2,684,483,063,360.

Basic Counting Principles:
Subtraction Rule
Subtraction Rule: If a task can be done either in one
of n1 ways or in one of n2 ways, then the total
number of ways to do the task is n1 + n2 minus the
number of ways to do the task that are common to
the two different ways.
● Also known as, the principle of inclusion-exclusion:
Counting Bit Strings
Example: How many bit strings of length eight either
start with a 1 bit or end with the two bits 00?
Solution: Use the subtraction rule.
● Number of bit strings of length eight
that start with a 1 bit: 27 = 128
● Number of bit strings of length eight
that start with bits 00: 26 = 64
● Number of bit strings of length eight
that start with a 1 bit and end with bits 00 : 25 = 32
Hence, the number is 128 + 64 − 32 = 160.
Basic Counting Principles: Division
Rule
Division Rule: There are n/d ways to do a task if it can be done using a procedure that
can be carried out in n ways, and for every way w, exactly d of the n ways correspond
to way w.
● Restated in terms of sets: If the finite set A is the union of n pairwise disjoint subsets
each with d elements, then n = |A|/d.
● In terms of functions: If f is a function from A to B, where both are finite sets, and for
every value y ∈ B there are exactly d values x ∈ A such that f(x) = y, then |B| = |A|/
d.

Example: How many ways are there to seat four people around a circular table, where
two seatings are considered the same when each person has the same left and right
neighbor?
Solution: Number the seats around the table from 1 to 4 proceeding clockwise. There
are four ways to select the person for seat 1, 3 for seat 2, 2, for seat 3, and one way for
seat 4. Thus there are 4! = 24 ways to order the four people. But since two seatings are
the same when each person has the same left and right neighbor, for every choice for
seat 1, we get the same seating.

Therefore, by the division rule, there are 24/4 = 6 different seating arrangements.
Tree Diagrams
● Tree Diagrams: We can solve many counting problems through the
use of tree diagrams, where a branch represents a possible choice and
the leaves represent possible outcomes.
● Example: Suppose that “I Love Discrete Math” T-shirts come in five
different sizes: S,M,L,XL, and XXL. Each size comes in four colors
(white, red, green, and black), except XL, which comes only in red,
green, and black, and XXL, which comes only in green and black.
What is the minimum number of stores that the campus book store
needs to stock to have one of each size and color available?
● Solution: Draw the tree diagram.

● The store must stock 17 T-shirts.

The Pigeonhole
Principle
Section 6.2
The Pigeonhole Principle
● If a flock of 20 pigeons roosts in a set of 19 pigeonholes, one of the
pigeonholes must have more than 1 pigeon.

Pigeonhole Principle: If k is a positive integer and k + 1 objects are

placed into k boxes, then at least one box contains two or more
objects.
Proof: We use a proof by contraposition. Suppose none of the k boxes
has more than one object. Then the total number of objects would be
at most k. This contradicts the statement that we have k + 1 objects.
The Pigeonhole Principle
Corollary 1: A function f from a set with k + 1
elements to a set with k elements is not one-to-one.
Proof: Use the pigeonhole principle.
● Create a box for each element y in the codomain of f .
● Put in the box for y all of the elements x from the
domain such that f(x) = y.
● Because there are k + 1 elements and only k boxes, at
least one box has two or more elements.
Hence, f can’t be one-to-one.
Pigeonhole Principle
Example: Among any group of 367 people, there must be at least two
with the same birthday, because there are only 366 possible birthdays.

Example (optional): Show that for every integer n there is a multiple of

n that has only 0s and 1s in its decimal expansion.
Solution: Let n be a positive integer. Consider the n + 1 integers 1, 11,
111, …., 11…1 (where the last has n + 1 1s). There are n possible
remainders when an integer is divided by n. By the pigeonhole
principle, when each of the n + 1 integers is divided by n, at least two
must have the same remainder. Subtract the smaller from the larger
and the result is a multiple of n that has only 0s and 1s in its decimal
expansion.
The Generalized Pigeonhole
Principle
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.
Proof: We use a proof by contraposition. Suppose that none of
the boxes contains more than ⌈N/k⌉ − 1 objects. Then the total
number of objects is at most

where the inequality ⌈N/k⌉ < ⌈N/k⌉ + 1 has been used. This is a
contradiction because there are a total of n objects.

Example: Among 100 people there are at least ⌈100/12⌉ = 9

who were born in the same month.
The Generalized Pigeonhole
Principle
Example: a) How many cards must be selected from a standard
deck of 52 cards to guarantee that at least three cards of the same
suit are chosen?
b) How many must be selected to guarantee that at least three
hearts are selected?
Solution: a) We assume four boxes; one for each suit. Using the
generalized pigeonhole principle, at least one box contains at least
⌈N/4⌉ cards. At least three cards of one suit are selected if ⌈N/4⌉
≥3. The smallest integer N such that ⌈N/4⌉ ≥3 is N
= 2 · 4 + 1 = 9.
b) A deck contains 13 hearts and 39 cards which are not hearts. So, if we
select 41 cards, we may have 39 cards which are not hearts along with 2
hearts. However, when we select 42 cards, we must have at least three
hearts. (Note that the generalized pigeonhole principle is not used here.)
Permutations and
Combinations
Section 6.3
Permutations
Definition: 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}.
● The ordered arrangement 3,1,2 is a permutation of S.
● The ordered arrangement 3,2 is a 2-permutation of S.
● The number of r-permutations of a set with n elements is
denoted by P(n,r).
● The 2-permutations of S = {1,2,3} are 1,2; 1,3; 2,1; 2,3; 3,1;
and 3,2. Hence, P(3,2) = 6.
A Formula for the Number of
Permutations
Theorem 1: 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.
Proof: Use the product rule. The first element can be chosen in n
ways. The second in n − 1 ways, and so on until there are (n − ( r
− 1)) ways to choose the last element.
● Note that P(n,0) = 1, since there is only one way to order zero
elements.
Corollary 1: If n and r are integers with 1 ≤ r ≤ n, then
Solving Counting Problems by
Counting Permutations
Example: How many ways are there to select a first-
prize winner, a second prize winner, and a third-prize
winner from 100 different people who have entered a
contest?

Solution:
P(100,3) = 100 · 99 · 98 = 970,200
Solving Counting Problems by
Counting Permutations (continued)
Example: Suppose that a saleswoman has to visit eight
different cities. She must begin her trip in a specified city,
but she can visit the other seven cities in any order she
wishes. How many possible orders can the saleswoman
use when visiting these cities?

Solution: The first city is chosen, and the rest are

ordered arbitrarily. Hence the orders are:
7! = 7 · 6 · 5 · 4 · 3 · 2 · 1 = 5040
If she wants to find the tour with the shortest path that visits
all the cities, she must consider 5040 paths!
Solving Counting Problems by
Counting Permutations (continued)
Example: How many permutations of the letters
ABCDEFGH contain the string ABC ?

Solution: We solve this problem by counting the

permutations of six objects, ABC, D, E, F, G, and H.

6! = 6 · 5 · 4 · 3 · 2 · 1 = 720
Combinations
Definition: 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). The notation is also used and is
called a binomial coefficient. (We will see the notation again in the
binomial theorem in Section 6.4.)
Example: Let S be the set {a, b, c, d}. Then {a, c, d} is a 3-
combination from S. It is the same as {d, c, a} since the order
listed does not matter.
● C(4,2) = 6 because the 2-combinations of {a, b, c, d} are the six
subsets {a, b}, {a, c}, {a, d}, {b, c}, {b, d}, and {c, d}.
Combinations
Theorem 2: The number of r-combinations of a set
with n elements, where n ≥ r ≥ 0, equals

Proof: By the product rule P(n, r) = C(n,r) · P(r,r).

Therefore,
Combinations
Example: How many poker hands of five cards can be dealt
from a standard deck of 52 cards? Also, how many ways are
there to select 47 cards from a deck of 52 cards?
Solution: Since the order in which the cards are dealt does
not matter, the number of five card hands is:

● The different ways to select 47 cards from 52 is

This is a special case of a general result. →

Combinations
Corollary 2: Let n and r be nonnegative integers with
r ≤ n. Then C(n, r) = C(n, n − r).
Proof: From Theorem 2, it follows that

and

Hence, C(n, r) = C(n, n − r).

This result can be proved without using algebraic manipulation. →

Combinatorial Proofs
● Definition 1: A combinatorial proof of an identity is a
proof that uses one of the following methods.
● A double counting proof uses counting arguments to
prove that both sides of an identity count the same
objects, but in different ways.
● A bijective proof shows that there is a bijection between
the sets of objects counted by the two sides of the
identity.
Combinatorial Proofs
● Here are two combinatorial proofs that
C(n, r) = C(n, n − r)
when r and n are nonnegative integers with r < n:
● Bijective Proof: Suppose that S is a set with n elements. The
function that maps a subset A of S to is a bijection between
the subsets of S with r elements and the subsets with n − r
elements. Since there is a bijection between the two sets, they must
have the same number of elements.
● Double Counting Proof: By definition the number of subsets of S
with r elements is C(n, r). Each subset A of S can also be
described by specifying which elements are not in A, i.e., those
which are in . Since the complement of a subset of S with r
elements has n − r elements, there are also C(n, n − r) subsets of S
with r elements.
Combinations
Example: 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.
Solution: By Theorem 2, the number of combinations is

Example: A group of 30 people have been trained as

astronauts to go on the first mission to Mars. How many
ways are there to select a crew of six people to go on this
mission?
Solution: By Theorem 2, the number of possible crews is
Binomial Coefficients
and Identities
Section 6.4
Section Summary
● The Binomial Theorem
● Pascal’s Identity and Triangle
● Other Identities Involving Binomial Coefficients (not
currently included in overheads)
Powers of Binomial Expressions
Definition: A binomial expression is the sum of two terms, such as x + y. (More
generally, these terms can be products of constants and variables.)
● We can use counting principles to find the coefficients in the expansion of (x + y)n
where n is a positive integer.
● To illustrate this idea, we first look at the process of expanding (x + y)3.
● (x + y) (x + y) (x + y) expands into a sum of terms that are the product of a term from
each of the three sums.
● Terms of the form x3, x2y, x y2, y3 arise. The question is what are the coefficients?
● To obtain x3 , an x must be chosen from each of the sums. There is only one way to do this. So,
the coefficient of x3 is 1.
● To obtain x2y, an x must be chosen from two of the sums and a y from the other. There are
ways to do this and so the coefficient of x2y is 3.
● To obtain xy2, an x must be chosen from of the sums and a y from the other two . There are
ways to do this and so the coefficient of xy2 is 3.
● To obtain y3 , a y must be chosen from each of the sums. There is only one way to do this. So, the
coefficient of y3 is 1.
● We have used a counting argument to show that (x + y)3 = x3 + 3x2y + 3x y2 + y3 .
● Next we present the binomial theorem gives the coefficients of the terms in the expansion of (x
+ y)n .
Binomial Theorem
Binomial Theorem: Let x and y be variables, and n a
nonnegative integer. Then:

Proof: We use combinatorial reasoning . The terms in

the expansion of (x + y)n are of the form xn−jyj for
j = 0,1,2,…,n. To form the term xn−jyj, it is necessary to
choose n−j xs from the n sums. Therefore, the
coefficient of xn−jyj is which equals .
Using the Binomial Theorem
Example: What is the coefficient of x12y13 in the
expansion of (2x − 3y)25?
Solution: We view the expression as (2x +(−3y))25.
By the binomial theorem

Consequently, the coefficient of x12y13 in the expansion is

obtained when j = 13.
A Useful Identity
Corollary 1: With n ≥0,

Proof (using binomial theorem): With x = 1 and y = 1, from the binomial

theorem we see that:

Proof (combinatorial): Consider the subsets of a set with n elements.

There are subsets with zero elements, with one element,
with two elements, …, and with n elements. Therefore the total is

Since, we know that a set with n elements has 2n subsets, we conclude:

 Blaise Pascal
(1623-1662)

Pascal’s Identity
Pascal’s Identity: If n and k are integers with n ≥ k ≥ 0, then

Proof (combinatorial): Let T be a set where |T| = n + 1, a ∊T, and S =

T − {a}. There are subsets of T containing k elements. Each of
these subsets either:
● contains a with k − 1 other elements, or
● contains k elements of S and not a.
There are
● subsets of k elements that contain a, since there are subsets of k −
1 elements of S,
● subsets of k elements of T that do not contain a, because there are
subsets of k elements of S. See Exercise 19 for
Hence, an algebraic proof.
 Pascal’s Triangle
The nth row in the
triangle consists
of the binomial
coefficients ,
k = 0,1,….,n.

By Pascal’s identity, adding two adjacent bionomial coefficients results is the

binomial coefficient in the next row between these two coefficients.
Generalized Permutations
and Combinations
Section 6.5
Section Summary
● Permutations with Repetition
● Combinations with Repetition
● Permutations with Indistinguishable Objects
● Distributing Objects into Boxes
Permutations with Repetition
Theorem 1: The number of r-permutations of a set of n
objects with repetition allowed is nr.
Proof: There are n ways to select an element of the set for
each of the r positions in the r-permutation when repetition
is allowed. Hence, by the product rule there are nr r-
permutations with repetition.

Example: How many strings of length r can be formed

from the uppercase letters of the English alphabet?
Solution: The number of such strings is 26r, which is the
number of r-permutations of a set with 26 elements.
Combinations with Repetition
Example: How many ways are there to select five
bills from a box containing at least five of each of the
following denominations: $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50,
and $100?
Solution: Place the selected bills in the appropriate
position of a cash box illustrated below:

continued →
Combinations with Repetition
● Some possible ways of
placing the five bills:

● The number of ways to select five bills corresponds to the number of

ways to arrange six bars and five stars in a row.
● This is the number of unordered selections of 5 objects from a set of
11. Hence, there are

ways to choose five bills with seven types of bills.

Combinations with Repetition
Theorem 2: The number of r-combinations from a set with n
elements when repetition of elements is allowed is
C(n + r – 1,r-1) = C(n + r – 1, n ).
Proof: Each r-combination of a set with n elements with repetition
allowed can be represented by a list of n –1 bars and r stars. The
bars mark the n cells containing a star for each time the ith element
of the set occurs in the combination.

The number of such lists is C(n + r – 1, r), because each list is a

choice of the r positions to place the stars, from the total of n+
r – 1 positions to place the stars and the bars. This is also equal to
C(n + r – 1, n –1), which is the number of ways to place the n –1 bars.
Combinations with Repetition
Example: How many solutions does the equation
x1 + x2 + x3 = 11
have, where x1 , x2 and x3 are nonnegative integers?
Solution: Each solution corresponds to a way to select 11
items from a set with three elements; x1 elements of type
one, x2 of type two, and x3 of type three.
By Theorem 2 it follows that there are

solutions.
Combinations with Repetition
Example: Suppose that a cookie shop has four different
kinds of cookies. How many different ways can six
cookies be chosen?
Solution: The number of ways to choose six cookies is
the number of 6-combinations of a set with four
elements. By Theorem 2

is the number of ways to choose six cookies from the four

kinds.
Summarizing the Formulas for Counting Permutations
and Combinations with and without Repetition
Permutations with Indistinguishable
Objects
Example: How many different strings can be made by reordering the
letters of the word SUCCESS.
Solution: There are seven possible positions for the three Ss, two Cs,
one U, and one E.
● The three Ss can be placed in C(7,3) different ways, leaving four positions
free.
● The two Cs can be placed in C(4,2) different ways, leaving two positions
free.
● The U can be placed in C(2,1) different ways, leaving one position free.
● The E can be placed in C(1,1) way.
By the product rule, the number of different strings is:

The reasoning can be generalized to the following theorem. →

Permutations with Indistinguishable
Objects
Theorem 3: The number of different permutations of n objects, where there are n1
indistinguishable objects of type 1, n2 indistinguishable objects of type 2, …., and nk
indistinguishable objects of type k, is:

Proof: By the product rule the total number of permutations is:

C(n, n1 ) C(n − n1, n2 ) ··· C(n − n1 − n2 − ··· − nk, nk) since:
● The n1 objects of type one can be placed in the n positions in C(n, n1 ) ways, leaving n − n1
positions.
● Then the n2 objects of type two can be placed in the n − n1 positions in C(n − n1, n2 )
ways, leaving n − n1 − n2 positions.
● Continue in this fashion, until nk objects of type k are placed in C(n − n1 −
n2 − ··· − nk, nk) ways.
The product can be manipulated into the desired result as follows:
Distributing Objects into Boxes
● Many counting problems can be solved by counting
the ways objects can be placed in boxes.
● The objects may be either different from each other
(distinguishable) or identical (indistinguishable).
● The boxes may be labeled (distinguishable) or unlabeled
(indistinguishable).
Distributing Objects into Boxes
● Distinguishable objects and distinguishable boxes.
● There are n!/(n1!n2! ···nk!) ways to distribute n distinguishable objects
into k distinguishable boxes.
● (See Exercises 47 and 48 for two different proofs.)
● Example: There are 52!/(5!5!5!5!32!) ways to distribute hands of 5
cards each to four players.
● Indistinguishable objects and distinguishable boxes.
● There are C(n + r − 1, n − 1) ways to place r indistinguishable objects
into n distinguishable boxes.
● Proof based on one-to-one correspondence between n-
combinations from a set with k-elements when repetition is allowed
and the ways to place n indistinguishable objects into k distinguishable
boxes.
● Example: There are C(8 + 10 − 1, 10) = C(17,10) = 19,448 ways to place
10 indistinguishable objects into 8 distinguishable boxes.
Distributing Objects into Boxes
● Distinguishable objects and indistinguishable boxes.
● Example: There are 14 ways to put four employees into three
indistinguishable offices (see Example 10).
● There is no simple closed formula for the number of ways to
distribute n distinguishable objects into j indistinguishable boxes.
● See the text for a formula involving Stirling numbers of the second
kind.
● Indistinguishable objects and indistinguishable boxes.
● Example: There are 9 ways to pack six copies of the same book into
four identical boxes (see Example 11).
● The number of ways of distributing n indistinguishable objects into
k indistinguishable boxes equals pk(n), the number of ways to write
n as the sum of at most k positive integers in increasing order.
● No simple closed formula exists for this number.