Easy Permutations and Combinations

Ive always confused permutation and combination which ones which?

Heres an easy way to remember: permutation sounds complicated, doesnt it? And it is. With
permutations, every little detail matters. Alice, Bob and Charlie is different from Charlie, Bob and Alice
(insert your friends names here).
Combinations, on the other hand, are pretty easy going. The details dont matter. Alice, Bob and
Charlie is the same as Charlie, Bob and Alice.
Permutations are for lists (order matters) and combinations are for groups (order doesnt
matter).

Permutations: The hairy details

Lets start with permutations, or all possible ways of doing something. Were using the fancy-pants
term permutation, so were going to care about every last detail, including the order of each item.
Lets say we have 8 people:
1:
2:
3:
4:
5:
6:
7:
8:

Alice
Bob
Charlie
David
Eve
Frank
George
Horatio

How many ways can we award a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place prize among eight contestants? (Gold / Silver /
Bronze)

Were going to use permutations since the order we hand out these medals matters. Heres how it
breaks down:

Gold medal: 8 choices: A B C D E F G H (Clever how I made the names match up with letters,
eh?). Lets say A wins the Gold.

Silver medal: 7 choices: B C D E F G H. Lets say B wins the silver.

Bronze medal: 6 choices: C D E F G H. Lets say C wins the bronze.

We picked certain people to win, but the details dont matter: we had 8 choices at first, then 7, then 6.
The total number of options was 8 * 7 * 6 = 336.

Lets look at the details. We had to order 3 people out of 8. To do this, we started with all options (8)
then took them away one at a time (7, then 6) until we ran out of medals.
We know the factorial is:
Unfortunately, that does too much! We only want 8 * 7 * 6. How can we stop the factorial at 5?
This is where permutations get cool: notice how we want to get rid of 5*4*3*2*1. Whats another name
for this? 5 factorial!
So, if we do 8!/5! we get:

And why did we use the number 5? Because it was left over after we picked 3 medals from 8. So, a
better way to write this would be:

where 8!/(8-3)! is just a fancy way of saying Use the first 3 numbers of 8!. If we haven items total
and want to pick k in a certain order, we get:

which just means Use the first k numbers of n!

And this is the fancy permutation formula: You have n items and want to find the number of
ways k items can be ordered:

Combinations, Ho!
Combinations are easy going. Order doesnt matter. You can mix it up and it looks the same. Lets say
Im a cheapskate and cant afford separate Gold, Silver and Bronze medals. In fact, I can only afford
empty tin cans.
How many ways can I give 3 tin cans to 8 people?
Well, in this case, the order we pick people doesnt matter. If I give a can to Alice, Bob and then
Charlie, its the same as giving to Charlie, Alice and then Bob. Either way, theyre equally disappointed.
This raises an interesting point weve got some redundancies here. Alice Bob Charlie = Charlie Bob
Alice. For a moment, lets just figure out how many ways we can rearrange 3 people.

Well, we have 3 choices for the first person, 2 for the second, and only 1 for the last. So we have 3 * 2
* 1 ways to re-arrange 3 people.
Wait a minute this is looking a bit like a permutation! You tricked me!
Indeed I did. If you have N people and you want to know how many arrangements there are for all of
them, its just N factorial or N!
So, if we have 3 tin cans to give away, there are 3! or 6 variations for every choice we pick. If we want
to figure out how many combinations we have, we just create all the permutations and divide by
all the redundancies. In our case, we get 336 permutations (from above), and we divide by the 6
redundancies for each permutation and get 336/6 = 56.
The general formula is

which means Find all the ways to pick k people from n, and divide by the k! variants. Writing this out,
we get our combination formula, or the number of ways to combine k items from a set of n:

A few examples
Heres a few examples of combinations (order doesnt matter) from permutations (order matters).
Combination: Picking a team of 3 people from a group of 10. C(10,3) = 10!/(7! * 3!) = 10 * 9 *

8 / (3 * 2 * 1) = 120.
Permutation: Picking a President, VP and Waterboy from a group of 10. P(10,3) = 10!/7! = 10 * 9
* 8 = 720.
Combination: Choosing 3 desserts from a menu of 10. C(10,3) = 120.

Permutation: Listing your 3 favorite desserts, in order, from a menu of 10. P(10,3) = 720.
Dont memorize the formulas, understand why they work. Combinations sound simpler than
permutations, and they are. You have fewer combinations than permutations.

1.

Factorial Notation:
Let n be a positive integer. Then, factorial n, denoted n! is defined as:
n! = n(n - 1)(n - 2) ... 3.2.1.
Examples:
i.

We define 0! = 1.

2.

ii.

4! = (4 x 3 x 2 x 1) = 24.

iii.

5! = (5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1) = 120.

Permutations:
The different arrangements of a given number of things by taking some or all at a time, are
called permutations.
Examples:

3.

i.

All permutations (or arrangements) made with the letters a, b, c by taking two at a
time are (ab, ba, ac, ca, bc, cb).

ii.

All permutations made with the letters a, b, c taking all at a time are:
( abc, acb, bac, bca, cab, cba)

Number of Permutations:
Number of all permutations of n things, taken r at a time, is given by:
n

Pr = n(n - 1)(n - 2) ... (n - r + 1) =

n!
(n - r)!

Examples:
i.

ii.

iii.
4.

P2 = (6 x 5) = 30.
P3 = (7 x 6 x 5) = 210.

Cor. number of all permutations of n things, taken all at a time = n!.

An Important Result:
If there are n subjects of which p1 are alike of one kind; p2 are alike of another kind; p3 are
alike of third kind and so on and pr are alike of rth kind,
such that (p1 + p2 + ... pr) = n.
Then, number of permutations of these n objects is =

5.

n!
(p1!).(p2)!.....(pr!)

Combinations:
Each of the different groups or selections which can be formed by taking some or all of a
number of objects is called a combination.
Examples:

i.

Suppose we want to select two out of three boys A, B, C. Then, possible selections are
AB, BC and CA.
Note: AB and BA represent the same selection.

ii.

All the combinations formed by a, b, c taking ab, bc, ca.

iii.

The only combination that can be formed of three letters a, b, c taken all at a time
is abc.

iv.

Various groups of 2 out of four persons A, B, C, D are:

AB, AC, AD, BC, BD, CD.

v.

2.

Note that ab ba are two different permutations but they represent the same
combination.

Number of Combinations:
The number of all combinations of n things, taken r at a time is:

n!

Cr =

n(n - 1)(n - 2) ... to r factors

(r!)(n - r!)

r!

Note:
i.

Cn = 1 and nC0 = 1.

ii.

Cr = nC(n - r)

Examples:
i.
ii.

(11 x 10 x 9 x 8)

C4 =

11

C13 =

16

C(16 - 13) =

16

C3 =

16

(4 x 3 x 2 x 1)
16 x 15 x 14
3!

Read more:

Permutation and Combination - General Questions

Math A30Concept A: Permutations andCombinations

Test
1. Calculate.

= 330.
=

16 x 15 x 14
3x2x1

= 560.

a) 5! b) 4! 3! c)6P12
d)7C3
e)6C4
2. Find the number of possible outcomes if you toss a coin and rolla dice.
3. Explain the difference between permutations and combinations.
4. How many ways can the letters of the word FORMAT bearranged?
5. How many ways can the letters of the word MATHEMATICS be arranged?
6. You select a president and vice-president from a group of 5students. Find the number of possible
outcomes.
7. You must select a committee of 3 from 12 students. How manydifferent committees can be formed?
8. How many 3-digit numbers are possible using the digits 0, 1, 4,5, 7 and 9?
9. Find the number of combinations of 7 objects taking 2 at a time.
10. A class has 14 boys and 16 girls. The class has to elect one boyand one girl to be representatives on a
committee. How manydifferent ways can they select them?

11. How many arrangements of three types of flowers are there if there are 6 types to choose from?
12. If a university student has to choose 2 science classes from 5available science classes and 3 other
classes from a total of 7 other classes available, how many different groups of classes are there?
13. How many different ways can you have 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4thin a race with 10 runners?
14. How many ways can 7 people be arranged around a roundtable?
15. A license plate has 3 letters and 3 digits in that order. A witnessto a hit and run accident saw the first 2
letters and the last digit. If the letters and digits can be repeated, how many license plates must be checked
by the police to find the culprit?
Solutions
1. a) 120 b) 144 c) 30 d) 35 e) 15
2. 12
3. Permutations are when order is important. Combinations are when order is not important.
4. 720
5. 4989600
6. 20
7. 220
8. 180
9. 21
10. 224
11. 20

12. 350
13. 5040
14. 720
15. 2600

There are 20 people who work in an office together. Four of these people are selected to go to the same
conference together. How many such selections are possible?
This problem involves a combination of 20 people taken 4 at a time. It is not a permutation because the
order in which the people are selected does not matter. To get the answer, you must find C 20,4 =
(20*19*18*17)/4! = 4845.

There are 20 people who work in an office together. Four of these people are selected to attend four
different conferences. The first person selected will go to a conference in New York, the second will go to
Chicago, the third to San Franciso, and the fourth to Miami. How many such selections are possible?
This problem involves a permutation of 20 people taken 4 at a time. It is not a combination because the
order in which the people are selected matters. To obtain the answer, you need P 20,4 = 20*19*18*17 =
116,280.

Serial numbers for a product are to be made using three letters (using any letter of the alphabet) followed
by two single-digit numbers. For example, JGR29 is one such serial number. How many such serial
numbers are possible if neither letters nor numbers can be repeated?
The solution involves the multiplication principle and permutations. First three letters must be chosen from
26, and since order is important, this is P26,3. Then two digits must be chosen from 10, and this is P 10,2. By
the multiplication principle, the number of possible serial numbers is P 26,3*P10,2 = 26*25*24*10*9 =
1,404,000.
A 7-card hand is chosen from a standard 52-card deck. How many of these will have four spades and
three hearts?
This problem involves choosing 4 spades from 13 followed by choosing 3 hearts from 13. The order in
which the cards are selected does not matter. The possible number of hands with these characteristics is
C13,4*C13,3 = 204,490.
In a new group of 15 employees at a restaurant, 10 are to be assigned as servers, 3 are to be assigned
as hosts, and 2 are to be assigned as cashiers. In how many ways can the assignment be made?
In this problem, we must choose 10 from a group of 15, followed by 3 from the remaining 5, and then 2
from the remaining 2. Since the order in which people are chosen in each group does not matter, the
number of ways in which the assignment can be made is C15,10*C5,3*C2,2 = 30,030.

In how many ways can a first prize, a second prize and four identical third prizes be awarded to a group of
15 people?
The solution for this problem involves both a permutation and a combination. Order matters for the first
two people selected, but it does not matter for the next four. The number of ways in which the prizes can
be awarded is P15,2*C13,4 = 150,150.

There are 10 students from whom 4 are going to be chosen to represent their school at a conference. If
Jack, Anna or Chris, but only one of them, must be chosen, in how many ways can the students be
chosen to go to the conference?
First we must pick Jack, Anna or Chris, so there are 3 choices for the first person selected. This leaves 7
students from whom 3 must be selected, so the answer is 3*C 7,3 = 105.