Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
Lesson:
If we werent worried about repetition, we would say that there are 11! ways to rearrange
the letters in the word MISSISSIPPI. There is a problem however, since we cannot tell
one S from the other. The same can be said about the I and the P.
Recall that the 11! came from the Multiplication Principle. If we need to remove some
possibilities, we must divide those possibilities. (Recall the Superman-Kryptonite
example multiplication dies with division.) Lets remove the possibilities of repetition
by dividing out the number of ways each repeated letter could be arranged.
Thus, the number of distinguishable permutations of the letters in the word MISSISSIPPI
is
ways
= 7! = 5040 ways
= 30 different numbers
347581797.doc Page 1 of 4
Example 4: How many distinguishable permutations can be made from the letters of the
word BEGINNING?
= 15120
Example 5: How many different 5 digit numbers can be made by arranging the digits of
46164?
n=5 4: n1 = 2 6: n2 = 2
= 30
Example 6: On a 12 question multiple-choice test, three answers are A, three answers are
B, three answers are C, and three answers are D. How many different answer keys are
possible?
n = 12 A: n1 = 3 B: n2 = 3 C: n3 = 3 D: n4 = 3
= 369 600
Example 8: How many different arrangements can be made using the letters of the word
ALPHABET if the word must start with a B?
There are 8 letters in the word, but the 2 is repeated. We have no choice about the B.
347581797.doc Page 2 of 4
1 = 2520
7777 = 2401
b) How many four-letter words can be formed if repetitions are not allowed?
7654 = 840
1654 = 120
d) How many four-letter words start with vowels in the first two positions?
2154 = 40
Example 10: Adam, Brent, Colin, David and Eric sit in a row. Adam and Brent insist on
sitting next to each other. In how many ways can these gentlemen be arranged in a row?
In this question, if Adam and Brent sit together, there are only four groups. So there are
4! ways to arrange these 4 groups. However, we must also consider that the order may
be Adam Brent or Brent Adam. We must double the number of ways:
4!2 = 48 ways
347581797.doc Page 3 of 4
Example 11: How many ways are possible if Adam and Brent insist that they do not sit
together?
The easiest way to think of this question is to consider the total number of ways that they
could sit and then subtract the numbers of ways that they could sit together that we found
in the last example.
5! 48 = 72 ways
Example 12: Five people, A, B, C, D, and E are seated on a bench. In how many ways
can they be seated if:
There are 4 groups: AB, C, D and E. Their factorials are 2!, 1!, 1! and 1!
4! 2! 1! 1! 1! = 48 ways
5! 48 = 72 ways
There are 3 groups: AC, BE, and D. Their factorials are 2!, 2! and 1!
3! 2! 2! 1! = 24 ways
Homework: Exercise 29
347581797.doc Page 4 of 4