MIT Art Design and Technology University

MIT School of Computing, Pune

Permutations, Combinations and Discrete Probability

(06 Hours)

Main Topic-1: Permutations and Combinations: rule of sum and product,

Permutations, Combinations, Algorithms for generation of Permutations and
Combinations
Main Topic-2: Binomial theorem, Probability, Conditional Probability
Main Topic-3: Bayes’ Theorem, Information and Mutual Information
 Session-1

Introduction: Permutations and Combinations, rule of

sum and product, Permutations, Combinations
Algorithms for generation of Permutations and
Combinations
 Introduction
Suppose that a password bank locker consists of five
characters. Each of these characters must be a digit or a letter of the
alphabet. Each password must contain at least one digit and first capital
Alphabet. How many such passwords are there?
The techniques needed to answer this question and a wide
variety of other counting problems will be introduced in this section.
Counting problems arise throughout mathematics and computer science. We
need to count the number of iterations used by an algorithm to study its time
complexity.
We will introduce the basic techniques of counting in this
section. These methods serve as the foundation for almost all counting
techniques.
Fundamental principle of counting:

• Addition principle : If there are r1 different outcomes in the 1st set, r2 different
outcomes in the 2nd set, · · · , and rm different outcomes in the mth set, and if the
different sets are disjoint, then the number of ways to select an object from one of

the m sets is r1 + r1 +…+ rm.

• Multiplication principle: Suppose a procedure can be broken into m successive

(ordered) stages, with r1 different outcomes in the 1st stage, r2 different outcomes in

the second stage,· · · , and rm different outcomes in the mth stage. If the number of
outcomes at each stage is independent of the choices in previous stages and if the
Composite outcomes are all distinct, then the total procedure has r1 × r2 × · · · × rm

different composite outcomes.

• Permutations: A permutation of n distinct objects is an arrangements or ordering of the n

objects.

• r-permutation P(n, r): An r-permutation of n distinct objects is an arrangement using r of the

n objects and it has P(n, r) or nPr ways and are given as

P(n, r) = n!/(n-r)!.

• Number of ways to arrange ‘n’ objects, where with r1 of them are first kind, r2 of them are

second kind,· · · , and rm of them are of mth kind are

 n!/(r1! r2!... rm!)

• Combinations: On many occasions we are not interested in arranging but only in

selecting r objects from given n objects. A combination is a selection of some or all of a

number of different objects where the order of selection is immaterial.

• r-combinations C(n, r): An r-combination of n distinct objects is an unordered

selection or subset of r objects out of the n objects. And it has C(n, r) or nCr ways And

is given as

C(n, r) = n!/[r!(n-r)!]
Note: The number of selections with repetition of ‘r’ objects chosen from ‘n’ distinct
objects is C(r + n − 1, r).
Example 1: In the class, there are 27 boys and 14 girls. The teacher wants to select 1
boy and 1 girl to represent the class for a function. In how many ways can the teacher
make this selection?

Solution: Here the teacher is to perform two operations: (i) Selecting a boy from among
the 27 boys and (ii) Selecting a girl from among 14 girls.

The first of these can be done in 27C1 ways and second can be performed in 14C1 ways. By
the fundamental principle of counting (Multiplication Principle) , the required number of
ways is 27
C1 × 14C1 =27 × 14 = 378.
Example 2. (i) How many numbers are there between 99 and 1000 having 7
in the unit's place?

(ii) How many numbers are there between 99 and 1000 having at least one of
their digits 7?

Solution: (i) First note that all these numbers have three digits and 7 is in the
unit’s place. The middle digit can be any one of the 10 digits from 0 to 9, so it
has 10C1 choices . The digit in hundreds place can be any one of the 9 digits from

1 to 9, so it has 9C1 choices. Therefore, by the fundamental principle of counting,

there are 10
C1 × 9C1 = 10 × 9 = 90

numbers between 99 and 1000 having 7 in the unit’s place.

(ii) Total number of 3 digit numbers having at least one of their digits as 7 = (Total numbers of three
digit numbers) – (Total number of 3 digit numbers in which 7 does not appear at all).
= (9C1 × 10C1 × 10C1 )-( 8C1 × 9C1 × 9C1 ) First palce can not be 7 or zero

(First place cannot be zero )

= (9 × 10 × 10) – (8 × 9 × 9)

= 900 – 648 = 252.

OR
Total number of 3 digit numbers having exactly one digit as 7= ( 9C1 × 9C1)+(8C1 × 9C1 )+(8C1 × 9C1)=255

Total number of 3 digit numbers having exactly two digits as 7 = 9C1 + 8C1 + 9C1=26

Total number of 3 digit numbers having all of their digits as 7=1

So total number of 3 digit numbers having at least one of their digits as 7 = 225+26+1= 252
Example 3. In how many ways can 5 children be arranged in a line such that
(i) Two particular children of them are always together.
(ii) Two particular children of them are never together.

Solution: (i) We consider the arrangements by taking 2 particular children together as

one and hence the remaining 4 can be arranged in 4! = 24 ways.

Again two particular children taken together can be arranged in 2!=2 ways.

Therefore, there are 24 × 2 = 48 total ways of arrangement.

(ii) There are total 5! = 120 arrangements of 5 children and there are 48 in which two
children are together.

So in remaining 120 – 48 = 72 arrangements, two particular children are never

together.
Example 4. There are five different Spanish books, six different French books, and
eight different Transylvanian books. How many ways are there to pick an
(unordered) pair of two books not both in the same language?

Solution: Total number of ways to choose any two books out of total19 books are 19C2=171.
Number of ways to choose 2 Spanish books is 5C2 =10,
Number of ways to choose 2 French books is 6C2 = 15 and
Number of ways to choose 2 Transylvanian books 8C2 =28.

By addition principle, number of ways to choose 2 books from same language is

10 + 15 + 28 = 53. Hence by complement, total number of ways to pick pair of two books
not both in the same language are 171 − 53 = 118.
Example 5.

How many different 8-digit binary sequences are there with six 1’s and two 0's?

Solution :

This problem can be modeled as, we have to put six 1's and two 0's in eight boxes.

For this we have to choose six boxes to put these six 1's by 8C6 number of ways.

Now put remaining two 0's in two boxes by 2C2 number of ways.

Hence by multiplication principle, we get

8
C6 × 2C2 = 28

different 8-digit binary sequences are there with six 1’s and two 0's.
Example 6. How many nonempty different collections can be formed from
five (identical) apples and eight (identical) oranges?
Solution :
Let (a, o) denotes the collection with ‘a’ number of apples and ‘o’ number of
oranges.
Now there are six possible values for ‘a’ namely 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and nine possible
values for ‘o’ namely 0, 1, 2, 3, · · · , 8. Hence there are total
6
C1 × 9C1 = 54
different collections.
Since we want non-empty collections we have to exclude one choice of (0, 0).
Thus total non-empty different collections are 54 − 1 = 53.
Example 7.
How many ways are there to arrange the seven letters in the word SYSTEMS?
In how many of these arrangements do the three S's appear consecutively?
Solution:
Firstly we put all the seven letters in 7 positions (places) so that we will get all possible
arrangements. Let seven places be like below,
−−−−−−−
We firstly choose three places out of seven for 3 S's and that can be done by 7C3 ways and
then put these S's at that places.
Now remaining four distinct letters can be place in four places by 4! ways.
So by multiplication principle, total number of arrangements are
 7
C3 × 4! = 35 × 4! = 840
(Explanation for 4! Arrangements) choose one position for 'Y' out of remaining four
positions by 4C1 ways, choose one position for 'T' out of remaining 3 positions by 3C1 ways,

choose one position for 'E' out of remaining 2 positions by 2C1 ways, choose one position

for 'M' out of remaining 1 position by 1C1 way.

So by multiplication principle, 4C1 × 3C1 × 2C1 × 1C1 = 4!).

Now to get arrangements with three S's appear consecutively, we tie 3 S's together and call
it as S'. So we have effectively five distinct letters S',Y,T,E,M.
These five letters can be arranged by 5! ways.
Example 8.
In how many ways 3 mathematics books, 4 history books, 3 chemistry books
and 2 biology books can be arranged on a shelf so that all books of the same
subjects are together.

Solution: First we consider books of a particular subject as one unit.

Thus there are 4 units which can be arranged in 4! = 24 ways.

Now in each of arrangements, mathematics books can be arranged in 3! ways,

history books in 4! ways, chemistry books in 3! ways and biology books in 2!
ways.

Thus the total number of ways = 4! × 3! × 4! × 3! × 2! = 41472.

Example 9 : If all permutations of the letters of the word AGAIN are arranged in the
order as in dictionary. What is the 49th word?

Solution : Alphabetical order of letters in word AGAIN is A, A, G, I, N.

Starting with letter A, and arranging the other four letters, there are 4!=24 words. These
are the first 24 words in the dictionary. Then Starting with G, and arranging A, A, I and N
in different way, there are 4!/(2!1!1!)=12 words.

Now next word start with I, similarly there are 12 words starting with I.

So the total count of words starting with A, G and I is 24+12+12= 48.

But we want 49th word, so it will start with N and it will be first word stating with N and
arranged in dictionary order, thus it will be NAAGI.
 POKER PROBABILITIES

• There are 52 cards in standard deck.

• Four suits namely heart, diamond, spade and club.
• In each suit there are 13 cards namely A-Ace,2, · · · , 10, J-Jack, Q-Queen, K-
king such three face cards.
EXAMPLE 10.
(a) How many 5-card hands (subsets) can be formed from a standard 52-card deck?
(b) If a 5-card hand is chosen at random, what is the probability of obtaining a flush
(all five cards in the hand are in the same suit) ?
(c) What is the probability of obtaining three, but not four, Aces?
Solution:
(a) A 5-card hand is a subset of five cards chosen from the 52 cards in a deck, and so there
are 52
C5 = 2,598,960 different 5-card hands.
(b) To find the probability of a flush, we need to find the number of 5-card subsets with
all cards of the same suit. There are four suits, and a subset of five cards from the
13 cards in a given suit can be chosen in 13C5 = 13!/(5!8!) = 1287 ways. So
there are 4 × 1287 = 5148 flushes, and
Prob(5-card hand is a flush) = 5148/ 2,598,960 = 0.00198 = 0.2%
(c) To count the number of hands with exactly three aces, pick three of four aces by 4C3 =
4 ways.
Then complete the hand by choosing two cards from remaining 48 cards by
48
C2 = 1128 ways.

So there are 4 × 1128 =4512 hands with exactly three Aces, and

Prob(5-card hand exactly 3 aces) = 4512/ 2,598,960 = 0.00174.

Example 11 : How many three digit numbers can be formed from the digits 2, 3, 4, 5,
6 (i) If repetition of digits is not allowed. (ii) If repetition of digits is allowed.
Solution: (i) Method I: Every arrangement of digits gives a different number. So total
number of arrangements of five digits taken three digits at a time is
5
P3 = 5!/2!= 60

Method II: Firstly choose three digits out of given five digits by 5C3 ways.
And then arrange them by 3! ways. So total three digits numbers formed from given
digits 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 are 5C3 × 3! = 5!/(3!2!) × 3! = 60
(ii) Hint: Make the three cases like all three digits are same (count:5) , two digits are same
(count: 60) and all digits are distinct (count: 60). So answer is
5+60+60= 125.
Example 12 : How many numbers can be formed with the digits 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 taken

all at a time? Find the sum of all such numbers.

Solution: The five digits can be arranged in 5!=120 ways.

Now, consider any one of the five given digits, say 3. Suppose the digit 3 is in the unit’s

place. The other four digits can be arranged in 4!=24 ways to form numbers that have

3 in the unit’s place. Thus 4 of the 120 numbers have 3 in the unit’s place.

Similarly , each of the four digits is in the unit’s place in 24 of the 120 numbers.
The sum of the digits in the units place among all 120 numbers is

24 (3+4+6+7+8) =672.

Similarly, the sum of the digits in the ten’s place among all 120 numbers is 672. The same

is also the sum of the digits in each place among all 120 numbers.

The required sum is

N = 672units + 672 tens + 672 hundred + 672 thousands + 672 ten thousands

= 672 (1 + 10 + 100 + 1000 + 10000 )

= 672 (11111)

= 74,66,592
Example 13 :
A domino is made up of two squares each of which is marked with one, two, three,
four, five, six spots, or is left blank. How many different dominoes can be made?
Solution:
We have to find number of distinct dominoes is same as the number of ways of selecting
two objects from distinct seven objects “one”, “two”, “three”, “four”, “five”, “six” or
“blank” with repetition allowed is,
C(7+2-1, 2) = C(8, 2) = 28.
 EXERCISES
Example 1 : A rumor is spread randomly among a group of 10 people by successively
having one person call someone, who calls someone, and so on. A person can pass the
rumor on to anyone except the individual who just called.
(a) By how many different paths can a rumor travel through the group in
three calls? In n calls?
(b) What is the probability that if A starts the rumor, A receives the third
calls?
(c) What is the probability that if A does not start the rumor, A receives
the third call?
Example 2: How many nonempty collections of letters can be formed from four A's
And eight B's?
Example 3: How many arrangements can be made, with the letters of the word
CALCULATOR ? In how many of them, vowels occurs together? (Ans. :15120)
Example 4 : Given 10 different English books, six different French books, and four
different German books,
(a) How many ways are there to select one book?
(b) How many ways are there to select three books, one of each language?
(c) How many ways are there to make a row of three books in which exactly
one language is missing (the order of the three books makes a difference)?
Example 5 : How many ways are there to pick two different cards from a standard 52-
card deck such that
(a) The first card is an Ace and the second card is not a Queen?
(b) The first card is a spade and the second card is not a Queen?
Example 6 : How many different 8-digit pentanary sequences are there with at most four 1’s
and exactly two 0's?
Example 7 : In a small village, there are 87 families, of which 52 families have at most 2
children. In a rural development program 20 families are to be chosen for assistance, of
which at least 18 families must have at most 2 children. In how many ways can the choice be
made?
Example 8 : Forming Committees A committee of k people is to be chosen from a set of
seven women and four men. How many ways are there to form the committee if
(a) The committee consists of three women and two men?
(b) The committee can be any positive size but must have equal numbers of
women and men?
(c) The committee has four people and one of them must be Mr. Nehe?
(d) The committee has four people and at least two are women?
(e) The committee has four people, two of each sex, and Mr. and Mrs. Nehe cannot both be
on the committee?
Example 9 : A student has to answer 10 questions, choosing at least 4 from each of part A
and B. If there are 6 questions in part A and 6 questions in part B, in how many ways can
the students choose 10 questions?
Example 10 : It is required to arrange 8 books on a shelf. Find the number of ways to do
this if two specified books are (i) always together (ii) never together.
Example 11 : What is the probability that a 4-digit campus telephone number has one
or more repeated digits?
Then find the four digit campus telephone number with
(a) All four digits are the same.
(b) three digits are the same, the other is different.
(c) two digits are the same, the other two digits are also the same (e.g., 2828).
(d) two digits are the same, the other two digits are each different (e.g., 5105).
Example 12 : How many arrangements of the seven letters in the word SYS-
TEMS have the E occurring somewhere before the M? How many arrangements
have the E somewhere before the M and the three Ss grouped consecutively?
Example 13 : In how many ways can 8 students be arranged at a round table so that 2
particular students are together, if
(i) Students are arranged with respect to each other? (i.e. the seats are not numbered)
(ii) Students are arranged with respect to the table? (i.e. the seats are numbered
serially)
Applications Of Permutations, Combinations and Discrete
Probability:
Permutations:
1. Passwords and PINs:
Explanation: Permutations are crucial in cybersecurity and authentication. When setting a
password or PIN, each arrangement of characters or digits represents a unique permutation.
The number of permutations gives an idea of the complexity and security of the password or
PIN.
2. Sequencing and scheduling:
Explanation: In logistics and scheduling, permutations are used to determine different
sequences or orders of tasks, jobs, or routes. For example, in manufacturing processes,
arranging tasks in different orders can affect efficiency and throughput.
3. Genetic sequencing:
Explanation: In genetics, permutations are used to analyze and study the sequence of genes
or DNA nucleotides. Understanding different permutations helps in identifying genetic
patterns, mutations, and evolutionary relationships.
 Combinations:

1. Combinatorial designs:
Explanation: Combinations are used in designing experiments and surveys. For instance, in
statistical sampling, researchers often select subsets of items or individuals from a larger
population without regard to the order of selection. This ensures random and unbiased
sampling.
2. Team formation:
Explanation: Combinations are applied in forming teams or committees from a group of
individuals. The focus is on selecting groups where the order of selection does not matter but
the composition of the team does. For example, forming project teams in a workplace or
selecting members for a sports team.
3. Lottery and gambling:
Explanation: Combinations play a role in determining the odds of winning in lotteries and
other games of chance. For example, in a lottery where you choose 6 numbers out of 49, the
number of possible combinations determines the probability of winning the jackpot.
 Discrete Probability:

1. Risk assessment and insurance:

Explanation: Discrete probability is used in assessing risks and setting insurance premiums.
Insurers use probabilities to estimate the likelihood of certain events (like accidents or
illnesses) occurring and calculate premiums accordingly.
2. Quality control and defect analysis:
Explanation: Discrete probability helps in quality control by assessing the probability of
defects or errors in manufacturing processes. Understanding these probabilities allows
companies to implement quality control measures and improve product reliability.
3. Game theory and decision making:
Explanation: Discrete probability is fundamental in game theory to analyze strategic
decisions in competitive situations. It helps in predicting outcomes and determining optimal
strategies based on probabilities of different events occurring.
Thank You…