Advanced Mathematics Classes Topic:Combinatorics

Dibyendu Saha Classwork-11 September 9, 2020

Solution of Homework
Homework 0.1. Find number of numbers which

(i) are four digit numbers.

(ii) are four digit numbers and are even.

(iii) are four digit nubers and are palindrome.

Solution: (i) To make a four digit number, we have to fill its four places; Thousand’s
place, hundred’s place, ten’s place and unit’s place with digit taken from

{0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9}

Clearly, filling each place is mutually independent works so multiplicative principle can
give us the final answer.

9 × 10 × 10 × 10 = 9000
− − − −
Th H Te U

Here, ‘T h’,‘H’,‘T e’ and ‘U ’ represents the thousand’s place, hundred’s place, ten’s place
and unit’s place respectively. Since, we are making a four digit number, in case of filling
the thousand’s place we can not use the digit ‘0’. So for thousand’s place we are left
with 9 choices of digits. For the rest of the places no constraint on choosing digit is
there, so we have 10 choices of digits in each of them.

(ii) A simple thinking will tell us that half of the above 9000 numbers are even and half of
them are odd. However, we can also find this by multiplicative principle.
Number of choices of digits for each places remains same as that in the previous problem,
except, the unit’s place. Unit’s place can only have one digit from {0, 2, 4, 6, 8} and
hence, 5 choices of digits are possible for this place.

9 × 10 × 10 × 5 = 4500
− − − −
Th H Te U

(iii) For a palindrome four digit number thousand’s place digit is same as unit’s place digit
and hundred’s place digit is same as ten’s place digit, so once the thousand’s place digit
and hundred’s place digit is chosen the later to digits can be chosen in only 1 ways.
Hence, number of suh numbers is,

9 × 10 × 1 × 1 = 90
− − − −
Th H Te U

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Advanced Mathematics Classes Topic:Combinatorics
Dibyendu Saha Classwork-11 September 9, 2020

1 Permutation of All Different Objects

An informal definition of Permutation can be given like,
Given a certain number of things, each of the different arrangements that can be made out
of them, taking some of them or all of them at a time, is called a Permutation of the given
things.

1.1 Taking All at a Time:

So far we have done this type of problems,

Example 1.1. You have invited 7 friends in your birthday party and you have 7 seats to
make them eat. In how many ways you can arrange them in those seven seats?

Ans.: 7!

Also nothing special about 7. Number of permutation of n different objects taking all at a
time is n!.[n is any natural number.]

1.2 Taking r(< n) at a Time(n Pr ):

Now suppose we are changing the previous example a little,

Example 1.2. You have invited 7 friends in your birthday party and you have 4 seats to
make them eat. In how many ways you can arrange any four of them in those 4 seats?

Ans.: Here, recall from your previous class, that how we got answer to the previous ques-
tion. An simple application of multiplicative principle. Here also we shall use the same
procedure.Let, the seats be denoted as 1,2,3 and 4 respectively. Clearly, number ways 4 of
the 7 friends can be arranged in the given four seats is,

7×6×5×4
− − − −
1 2 3 4

Consider another similar problem,

Example 1.3. You have invited 12 friends in your birthday party and you have 8 seats to
make them eat. In how many ways you can arrange any 8 of them in those 8 seats?

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Advanced Mathematics Classes Topic:Combinatorics
Dibyendu Saha Classwork-11 September 9, 2020

Ans.: Again we shall apply the same procedure, and the answer will be,
12 × 11 × 10 × 9 × 8 × 7 × 6 × 5
− − − − − − − −
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

However, we can rewrite this expression also in some another way, using our notation of
factorial as,
12 × 11 × · · · × 1 12!
12 × 11 × 10 × 9 × 8 × 7 × 6 × 5 = =
4×3×2×1 4!

In general if we want to answer the similar type question with n many friends and r(< n)
many seats or to be specific, number of permutation of n different objects taking r(< n) at
a time is,
n!
(n) × (n − 1) × (n − 2) × · · · × (n − r + 1) =
1 2 3 r
(n − r)!

The above number plays a very important role in permutation as well as the whole theory of
combinatorics. We define this number as,
n n!
Pr :=
(n − r)!

1.3 Definition of 0!:

Note that, we defined n Pr when r is strictly lesser than n.However when r = n that is number
of permutation of n different objects taking all at a time is n!. If we forcefully generalise n Pr
for the case when n = r also then ,
n n! n!
Pn = =
(n − n)! 0!
Note that, 0! is not defined yet and the actual answer n! leads us to define,
0! := 1
This is not the only reason we define 0! to be equal to 1. There are more rigorous way to
define the same. For now, this is not required.

2 Permutation of not All Different Objects

In combinatorics, understanding distinct objects and identical objects is highly necessary.
One very simple method of understanding this, is by using English words.

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Advanced Mathematics Classes Topic:Combinatorics
Dibyendu Saha Classwork-11 September 9, 2020

2.1 Distinct and Identical Object:

Let us understand this by taking an example.

Firstly, consider all permutations of the letters of the word “SET”. They are;
SET
STE
ETS
EST
TSE
TES
Clearly, this six permutations are possible, which we can also compute using multiplicative
principle of counting and answer will be 3! = 6.

Now consider all permutations of the letters of the word “SEE”. Note that, in the previous
example we first fixed the first letter and then swapped the remaining. But here the same
procedure will not work, as swapping two ‘E’s in the will not produce a new permutation i.e.
two ‘E’s are identical. Hence, the permutations will be,
SEE
ESE
EES
here, only 3 permutations are possible. To count this using combinatorics,we can say that,
if two ‘E’s were not identical then the total number of permutations would be 3! but since
two ‘E’s are identical, we will not consider ordering between them hence for each of their
2! ordering we shall count 1 which will lead us to the final counting of total number of
permutations
3!
= =3
2!
To clarify this understanding one may also think of it in the following way, Suppose number
of permutations of the letters of the word “SEE” is x. Now if the two ‘E’s were not identical
then for each of those x permutations we will have 2! many ordering of the ‘E’s and the final
number should be then 3!.
3!
x × 2! = 3! =⇒ x =
2!

2.2 No Ordering or One Particular Ordering:

Example 2.1. Find number of permutations of the letters of the word “BOOKS”, taking all
at a time.

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Advanced Mathematics Classes Topic:Combinatorics
Dibyendu Saha Classwork-11 September 9, 2020

4!
Ans: 2!

Example 2.2. Consider the word “VENUS”.

(i) How many permutations of the letters are possible taking all at a time.

Ans: 5!

(ii) Among how many of those E and U are always consecutive and in this order?

Ans: Here, we can treat E and U together as one object and rest three as it was
previously. So now the problem is to compute the number of permutations of 4 different
objects taking all at a time and answer to that will be=4!

(iii) Among how many of those E and U are always in this order?

Ans: One simple way to think this is, among this 5! permutations half of them will
have E before U and half of them U before E. Hence, the required answer is = 5!/2

Alt. Ans.: Here we claim that answer to this question is same as answering number
of permutations of the letters of the meaningless word “VONOS” and answer to this
will be = 5!/2!
Now, to explain our claim we will say that, for any permutation of “VONOS” we will
replace the first O by E and the second O as U.

(iv) Among how many of those E,U and S are always in this order?

Ans: in the similar way we can think that, among this 5! permutations number of
permutations for a fixed ordering of E,U and S is same and 3! many ordering of E,U
and S are possible. Hence, The required number is = 5!/3!

Alt. Ans.: Here we claim that answer to this question is same as answering number
of permutations of the letters of the meaningless word “VONOO” and answer to this
will be = 5!/3!
Now, to explain our claim we will say that, for any permutation of “VONOS” we will
replace the first O by E, the second O by U and the third O by S.

Note that, considering one fixed particular ordering of a collection of objects or not consid-
ering any ordering of the same objects actually yields same number in counting.

Example 2.3. Consider all 100! permutations of the numbers 1, 2, · · · , 100.

(i) In how many of those first fifty numbers are always in ascending order?

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Advanced Mathematics Classes Topic:Combinatorics
Dibyendu Saha Classwork-11 September 9, 2020

Ans.: Consider all such permutations in which last fifty numbers are same and in a
fixed order. Number of such permutations for a fixed order of the last 50 numbers is
50!. Among those 50! many ordering of the first 50 numbers only one ordering is in
ascending order. Hence, for each of those 50! many permutations we are counting 1
permutations. Hence, the required number of permutations is = 100!/50!

(ii) In how many of those 100! permutations, maximum of first fifty is always in the 50th
place?

Ans.: In all the permutations of the previous part we have maximum of first 50 num-
bers at 50th place of the permutation. But in addition we also have all of the first 50
numbers in ascending order. For each of such permutations if we consider all possible
ordering of the first 49 numbers then we will be able to count the required number here.
Hence, the required number is
100!
= × 49!
50!

Alt. Ans.: Maximum of first 50 numbers always in one of the first 50 places of any
permutations. Depending upon its 50 possible position permutations will be different.
Now among these 50 possible permutations we are counting only 1 permutation in which
maximum is at 50th place. Hence, the number of such permutations is
100!
=
50

Homework 2.1. Among all permutations of the numbers 1, 2, · · · , 100, in how many of them,
maximum of first 50 numbers is in 50th place of the permutation and maximum of first 25
numbers is always in 25th place of the permutation?