THE COUNTING PRINCIPLES

The Counting Principles

An event is any activity or process that

generates some data or observations.
For every event that occurs, there are
always outcomes and these can be counted in
a variety of ways.
In general, these are the 3 different
methods of counting:
1. Listing
2. Use of Table
3. Tree Diagram
The Counting Principles
For two or more events, it may be considered if
the occurrence of one affects the occurrence of the
other.
a. Independent events
- one event can occur no matter how the other
events occur
ex. Tossing a coin and rolling a die
b. Mutually exclusive events
- events which cannot occur at the
same time
ex. Study your assignment and play badminton
The Counting Principles
Examples:

1. Event: Rolling a die

No. of outcomes = 6
Listing: {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}

2. Event: Tossing a coin

No. of outcomes = 2
Listing: {Head, Tail}
The Counting Principles
3. Independent Events: Rolling a die and tossing a coin
No. of outcomes (rolling a die) = 6
No. of outcomes (tossing a coin) = 2
No. of outcomes (both events) = 6 x 2 = 12

Listing: {H1 H2, H3, H4, H5, H6, T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, T6}
Tabular: 1 2 3 4 5 6
H H1 H2 H3 H4 H5 H6
T T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 T6

Tree Diagram: 1 1
2 2
3 3
H 4 T 4
5 5
6 6
The Counting Principles
Fundamental Principle of Counting
The Fundamental Counting Principle uses
multiplication of the number of ways each event in
an experiment can occur to find the number of
possible outcomes in a sample space.
If an event can occur in m ways and a second
event can occur in n ways, and a third event can
occur in p ways, and so on, then the sequence
of things can occur in m x n x p x… ways.
Problems

A close friend invited Anna to attend her

birthday party. Anna has four new blouses
(stripes, with ruffles, long-sleeved, and
sleeveless) and three skirts (red, pink and
black) in her closet reserved for such occasion.
Assuming that any skirt can be paired with any
blouse, in how many ways can Anna select her
outfit?
Using Tree Diagram
red stripes- red
pink stripes- pink
Stripes
black stripes - black

red with ruffles- red

With ruffles pink with ruffles- pink
black with ruffles - black
Blouse
red long-sleeved-red
Long-sleeved pink long-sleeved-pink
black long-sleeved- black

red sleeveless-red
sleeveless
pink sleeveless-pink
black sleeveless- black
Fundamental Principle of Counting

Blouse – 4 choices
Skirts – 3 choices

outcomes = 4 x 3
= 12 possible
Problems

Suppose you secured your bike using a

combination lock. Later, you realized that you
forgot the four-digit code . You only
remembered that the code contains the digit
1, 3, 4 and 7. How many possible codes are
there?
Using Tree Diagram
4 7 1347
3 7 4 1374
4 3 7 1437
1 7 3 1473
7 3 4 1734
4 3 1743

4 7 3147
1 7 4 3174
4 1 7 3417
3 7 1 3471
7 1 4 3714
4 1 3741
Using Tree Diagram
3 7 4137
1 7 3 4173
3 1 7 4317
4 7 1 4371
7 1 3 4713
3 1 4731

3 4 7134
1 4 3 7143
3 1 4 7314
7 4 1 7341
4 1 3 7413
3 1 7431
Fundamental Principle of Counting

1st - 4
2nd – 3
rd
3 –2
4th - 1

outcomes = 4 x 3 x 2 x 1
= 24 possible
Problems

You want to order your lunch from the

school canteen, which offers student meals
consisting of 1 cup of rice, 1 meat dish, and 1
vegetable dish. How many choices do you have
for your meal if there are 3 choices of meat
dishes and 2 choices of vegetable dishes?
 Using Tree Diagram

veg 1 rice-meat1-veg1
meat 1 veg 2 rice-meat1-veg2

veg 1 rice-meat2-veg1
1cup meat 2
veg 2 rice-meat2-veg2
of rice

veg 1 rice-meat3-veg1
meat 3
veg 2 rice-meat3-veg2
Fundamental Principle of Counting

meat dish – 3 choices

vegetable dish – 2 choices

outcomes = 3 x 2
= 6 possible