A Nice Proof of the Derangements Formula

Posted on November 22, 2011by mzspivey

A derangement is a permutation in which none of the elements is mapped to

itself. The formula for the number of derangements
on elements is

This formula is normally proved using inclusion-exclusion (and, in fact, it is one

of the classic illustrations of inclusion-exclusion).
A few days ago on math.SE robjohn posted a nice proof of this formula that I had
never seen before. It starts with the recurrence
relation
and initial conditions
. (The
recurrence relation can be proved combinatorially; see robjohns post or mine on
the same question.) Then, subtract
from both sides of the recurrence
relation to get
Let
With

, and the recurrence relation becomes

, this recurrence is easy to solve, and we get

Now, divide both sides of

by

Let
. Thus we have
easy to solve, and we get

With

Multiplying both sides by

.
.

to obtain

this recurrence is also

yields the derangement formula: