11 Pro babiIity
11.1 Permutations
Suppose that three playing cards, an ace, a king and a queen are to be placed in
line. The first place can be filled in three ways, with the ace or the king or the
queen. For each of these three ways, the second place can be filled in two ways,
and then the last card takes the third place. The cards can therefore be arranged
in 3 x 2 x 1 ways, and these six ways are shown in Fig. 11.1.
1st place
I\
A
I\
K
IQ\
2nd place K Q Q A A K
3rd place Q
I \ I K A
\ I Q K
\ A
Fig. 11.1
Each arrangement of n objects in a definite order is called a permutation.
When the n objects are all different, the first object can be chosen in n ways and
the second object in (n - 1) ways. This gives n(n - 1) ways of choosing the first
two objects. The third object can then be chosen in (n - 2) ways and so on. The
number of permutations of n different objects, denoted by "Pn, is therefore
n(n - 1)(n - 2) ... 3 x 2 x 1,
i.e. "Pn = n! (factorial n).
If only two objects are to be included in each arrangement, the number of
permutations will be n(n - 1).
If only r objects are to be included in each arrangement, the number of
permutations will be the product of the r factors
n(n - 1)(n - 2) ... (n - r + 1)
This is denoted by "P,, so that
n!
"P, = - - -
(n - r)!
Consider now the case when the objects are not all different. An ace, a king
and a queen can be arranged in six ways, but an ace and two kings can be
arranged in only three ways - AKK, KAK, KKA - if the suits of the kings are
ignored.
C. W. Celia et al., Advanced mathematics 2
© C. W. Celia, A. T. F. Nice & K. F. Elliott 1982
An ace, a king and four queens can be arranged in 6! ways when the suits of
the queens are taken into account. Once the positions of the ace and the king are
chosen, the queens can be arranged in 4! ways. If the suits of the queens are
ignored, the number of permutations is reduced to 6!/4!, i.e. 30.
In the general case, when r of n objects are identical and the rest are all
different, the n! arrangements of all n objects can be divided into groups each
containing r! identical arrangements. Therefore the number of permutations of n
objects of which r are identical is n!/r!.
Example 1
Find the number of three-figure integers that can be formed from the numbers
2, 3, 5, 7, 8 (a) if no number is used twice (b) if any number may be used more
than once.
(a) The first number can be chosen in five ways, the second number in four ways
and the third number in three ways. The number of permutations is therefore
5 X 4 X 3, i.e. 60.
(b) The first number can be chosen in five ways. The second can also be chosen
in five ways, and so can the third. Therefore 5 x 5 x 5 integers can be formed,
i.e. 125.
Example 2
Find the number of permutations of the letters of the word PUPPETS.
If the seven letters in the word were all different, there would be 7! permutations.
As three letters are identical, the number of permutations is 7!/3!, i.e. 840.
Example 3
Find the number of permutations of the letters of the word FOOTBALL
(a) which begin with Land end in A
(b) which begin with F and end with T.
(a) I L A
Each empty box in the diagram has to be filled with one of the six remaining
letters F, 0, 0, T, B, L. Since the two O's are indistinguishable, the number of
ways in which this can be done is 6!/2!, i.e. 360.
(b) I F I T I
The empty boxes have to be filled using the letters 0, 0, B, A, L, L. If the six
letters were all different this could be done in 6! ways. This number must be
divided by 2! since the two O's are indistinguishable, and again by 2! since the
two L's are indistinguishable. The required number is therefore 6!/(2!2!), i.e.
180.
Probability 363