Name _____________

Date _____________

Advanced Combinatorics 1

Permutation: Number of ways to arrange r things given n choices, where the

order matters.

Example:
How many ways can 5 people stand in a line if 2 of them wish to stand together?

Solution:
Assume the 5 people are ABCDE and AB wish to stand together. If we treat AB
as one person, there are 4P4 = 4! ways to arrange them. However, AB can also
arrange within themselves another 2P2 = 2! ways (namely, AB and BA). The
total number of ways is therefore 4!2! = 32.

Combination: Number of ways to choose r things given n choices, where the

order chosen doesnt matter.

Example:
How many ways can a company hire 3 people for a position if 10 people apply?

Solution:
 Name _____________
Date _____________

Ball and Urn Problem

If there are k balls, how many ways are there to place them into n urns?

Example:
If there are 4 balls and 2 urns.

Solution:
Let (a,b) mean there are a balls in the first urn and b balls in the second. Clearly,
all the possible ways are (4,0), (3,1), (2,2), (1,3), and (0,4), so there are 5 ways.

General Formula
If there are k indistinguishable balls and n urns, the answer to the ball and urn
problem is:

Example:
How many ordered sets of integers (a,b,c) are there such that if
a) ?
b) ?

Solution:
a) This is equivalent to having 3 urns and 17 balls, since the number of balls
in each urn can represent the value of a, b, or c. So the answer is simply:

b) Since a, b, and c cannot be 0, we can start by putting one ball in each urn.
Now we have 14 balls left which can be put in any way we like, so the
answer is:
 Name _____________
Date _____________

Problems:

1. How many ways are there to arrange 7 people in a line if 3 of them wish to
stand together?

2. How many ways are there to pick 5 people for a science team if 12 people
apply?

3. If, in the previous problem, there are 2 biologists applying and the science
team needs at least one biologist1, how many ways are there to pick a team
of 5?

4. How many ways are there to divide 10 pennies amongst 3 people if each
person is to receive at least one penny?

5. *The sum of the ages of three people is 30. If each is them is at least 2 years
old, how many different combinations of ages can they have between the
three of them?

6. **How many ways can 11 people stand in a line if 4 of them are enemies
and refuse to stand beside one another?

1
Biology is not a science