The Fundamental

Counting Principal,
Permutations, &
Combinations
• Unit 2 Module 3
 Objective(s)
1. State the principles of counting
2. Find the number of ways of arranging n
distinct objects
3. Find the number of ways of arranging n
objects some of which are identical
4. Find the number of ways of choosing r
distinct objects from a set of n distinct
objects .
 Prerequisite(s)
• Be able to count
• Perfom basic arithmetic operation
• Group numbers in the correctly
 The Fundamental Counting
Principal
• If you have 2 events: 1 event can occur m ways
and another event can occur n ways, then the
number of ways that both can occur is m*n
• Event 1 = 4 types of meats
• Event 2 = 3 types of bread

• How many diff types of sandwiches can you

make?
• 4*3 = 12
 The Fundamental Counting Principle states
that if one event can occur m ways and a
second event can occur n ways, the number
of ways the two events can occur in
sequence is m • n.
Start
1 Coin
st

Tossed
Heads Tails 2 ways to flip the
2nd Coin coin.
Tossed
Heads Tails Heads Tails 2 ways to flip the
coin.

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

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 3 or more events:
• 3 events can occur m, n, & p ways, then
the number of ways all three can occur is
m*n*p
• 4 meats
• 3 cheeses
• 3 breads
• How many different sandwiches can you
make?
• 4*3*3 = 36 sandwiches
• At a restaurant in Port Maria, you have the
choice of 8 different entrees, 2 different
salads, 12 different drinks, & 6 different
deserts.
• How many different dinners (one choice of
each) can you choose?

• 8*2*12*6 = 1152 different dinners

 Fund. Counting Principal with
repetition
• In Jamaica licenses plates have 4 #’s
followed by 2 letters.
• 1. How many different licenses plates are
possible if digits and letters can be
repeated?
• There are 10 choices for digits and 26
choices for letters.
• 10*10*10*10*26*26= 6 760 000 different
plates
 How many plates are possible if
digits and numbers cannot be
repeated?
• There are still 10 choices for the 1 st digit
but only 9 choices for the 2nd, 8 for the 3rd
and 7 for the 4th
• For the letters, there are 26 for the first,
and only 25 for the 2nd.
• 10*9*8*7*25*24= 3 276 000 plates
 Phone numbers
• How many different 7 digit phone numbers
are possible if the 1st digit cannot be a 0 or
1?
• 8*10*10*10*10*10*10= 8,000,000 different
numbers
 Testing
• A multiple choice test has 10 questions
with 4 answers each. How many ways
can you complete the test?
• 4*4*4*4*4*4*4*4*4*4 = 410 =1,048,576
 Using Permutations

• An ordering of n objects
is a permutation of the
objects.
There are basically two types of
permutation:

• Repetition is Allowed

• No Repetition: for example the first three

people in a running race. You can't be
first and second. Without repetition our
choices get reduced each time.
A permutation of n elements taken r at a
time is a subset of the collection of elements
where order is important.
Five projects are entered in a science
contest. In how many ways can the
projects come in first, second, and third?

1st 2nd 3rd 3

projects
5 x __
__ 4 x __
3
5
projects 4
projects
5 • 4 • 3 = 60 ways

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 There are 6 permutations of the
letters A, B, &C
• ABC You can use the
• ACB Fund. Counting Principal to
• BAC determine the number of
• permutations of n objects.
BCA
Like this ABC.
• CAB There are 3 choices for 1st #
• CBA 2 choices for 2nd #
1 choice for 3rd.
3*2*1 = 6 ways to arrange the
letters
 In general, the # of
permutations of n objects is:

• n! = n*(n-1)*(n-2)* …
 8 sprinters…
• How many different ways can 8 sprinters
in the Olympic 200m final finish the race?
(if there are no ties)
• 8! = 8*7*6*5*4*3*2*1= 40320
different ways
 Back to the finals in the Olympic
200m sprint competition.
• How many different ways can 3 of the
sprinters finish 1st, 2nd, & 3rd (gold, silver,
bronze)
• Any of the 8 sprinters can finish 1 st, the
any of the remaining 7 can finish 2 nd, and
any of the remaining 6 can finish 3 rd.
• So the number of ways the sprinters can
win the medals is
• 8*7*6 = 336
If some of the items are identical,
distinguishable permutations must be used.

In how many distinguishable ways can the

letters STATS be written?

STATS

The T’s
S’s are
are not
not distinguishable.
distinguishable.

Example continues.
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 The number of distinguishable permutations
of the n objects is
n!
n1 ! �
n2 ! �n3 ! �
��nk !
where n = n1 + n2 + n3 + . . . + nk.

The letters STATS can be written in

5! = 120 = 30 ways.
2! �
2! �
1! 4

S’s A’s
T’s

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Permutation of n objects taken r at
a time

• nP r = n!
 n  r !
 Back to the last problem with the
sprinters
• It can be set up as the number of
permutations of 8 objects taken 3 at a
time.
• 8P3 = 8! = 8! =
(8-3)! 5!
• 8*7*6*5*4*3*2*1 = 5*4*3*2*1
• 8*7*6 = 336
10 colleges, you want to visit all or
some.
• How many ways can you visit
6 of them:
• Permutation of 10 objects taken 6 at a
time:
• 10P6 = 10!/(10-6)! = 10!/4! =

• 3,628,800/24 = 151,200
 How many ways can you visit
all 10 of them:

• 10P10 =
• 10!/(10-10)! =
• 10!/0!=
• 10! = ( 0! By definition = 1)
• 3,628,800
 So far in our problems, we have
used distinct objects.
• If some of the objects are repeated, then
some of the permutations are not
distinguishable.
• There are 6 ways to order the letters
M,O,M
• MOM, OMM, MMO
• MOM, OMM, MMO
• Only 3 are distinguishable. 3!/2! = 6/2 = 3
 Permutations with Repetition
• The number of DISTINGUISHABLE
permutations of n objects where one
object is repeated q1 times, another is
repeated q2 times, and so on :
• n!
q1! * q2! * … * qk!
Find the number of distinguishable
permutations of the letters:
• OHIO : 4 letters with O repeated 2 times
• 4! = 24 = 12
• 2! 2

• MISSISSIPPI : 11 letters with I repeated 4

times, S repeated 4 times, P repeated 2
times
• 11! = 39,916,800 = 34,650
• 4!*4!*2! 24*24*2
Find the number of distinguishable
permutations of the letters:
• SUMMER :

360

• WATERFALL :

90,720
A dog has 8 puppies, 3 male and 5
female. How many birth orders are
possible

• 8!/(3!*5!) = 56
 What are
Combinations?
A combination of n elements taken r at a
time is a subset of the collection of elements
where order is not important.
Using the letters A, B, C, and D, find all the
possible combinations using two of the
letters.
{AB} This is the same as {BA}.

{AC}
{AD} There are six different
combinations using 2 of the 4
{BC} letters.
{BD}
{CD}

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• There are also two types of
combinations (remember the order
does not matter now):

• Repetition is Allowed: such as coins in

your pocket (5,5,5,10,10)

• No Repetition: such as lottery numbers

(2,14,15,27,30,33)
Example: How many different ways are
there to choose 6 out of 10 books if the
order does not matter?
3

C = C = 10! = 10 ����
9 8 7 6! = 210
n r 10 6
4!6! 4 ���
3 2 1�
6!

There are 210 ways to choose the 6 books.

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 Combinations and
Permutations

• What is the Difference?

• Permutation sounds complicated,

doesn’t it? And it is. With permutations,
every little detail matters. Alice, Bob and
Charlie is different from Charlie, Bob and
Alice.
• Combinations, on the other hand, are
pretty easy going. The details don’t matter.
Alice, Bob and Charlie is the same as
Charlie, Bob and Alice.
 What is the Difference?
"My fruit salad is a combination of apples,
grapes and bananas" We don't care what order
the fruits are in, they could also be "bananas,
grapes and apples" or "grapes, apples and
bananas", its the same fruit salad.

"The combination to the safe was 472". Now we

do care about the order. "724" would not work,
nor would "247". It has to be exactly 4-7-2.
So, in Mathematics we use
more precise language:
If the order doesn't matter, it is a Combination.
Combinations are for groups.

If the order does matter it is a Permutation.

Permutations are for lists
• Let’s try these together, that is you think
them through give your answers then I
will response.
Ex. 4: How many ways can
the 4 call letters of a radio
station be arranged if the first
letter must be W or K and no
letters repeat?
2  25  24  23 =
27,600
Ex. 5: In how many ways can
our class elect a president,
vice-president, and secretary
if no student can hold more
than one office?

n P3 =
Ex. 6: How many five-card
hands are possible from a
standard deck of cards?

52 C5 = 2,598,960
Ex. 7: Given the digits 5, 3, 6, 7,
8, and 9, how many 3-digit
numbers can be made if the first
digit must be a prime number?
(can digits be repeated?)
Think of these numbers as
they were on tiles, like
Scrabble. After you use a ti

3  5  4 = 60
you can’t use it again.
Ex. 8: In how many ways
can 9 horses place 1st, 2nd,
or 3rd in a race?
P
9 3 = 504
Ex. 9: Suppose there are 15 girls
and 18 boys in a class. In how
many ways can 2 girls and 2
boys be selected for a group
project?

15C2 X 18C2 = 16,065

 How lotteries work.

• The numbers are drawn one at a time,

and if you have the lucky numbers
(no matter what order) you win!
• So what is your chance of winning?
 The easiest way to explain it is to:

• assume that the order does matter (ie

permutations),
• then alter it so the order does not matter.
Wow, that was pretty cool!

• But knowing how these work is only half

of it. Figuring out how to interpret a real
world situation can be a challenging.
• But at least now you know how to find
all variations of combinations,
permutations, and the counting
principle.
• The FUN stuff next class