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Permutations and Combination Revision Notes
Permutations and Combination Revision Notes
Permutations and Combination Revision Notes
If we wish to arrange a total of n objects, out of which ‘p’ are of one type, q of
second type are alike, and r of a third kind are same, then such a computation
is done by n!/p!q!r!
Almost all permutation questions involve putting things in order from a line
where the order matters. For example ABC is a different permutation to ACB.
When ‘n’ different or unlike objects are to be arranged in a ring in such a way
that the clockwise and anticlockwise arrangements are different, then the
number of such arrangements is given by (n – 1)!
If r things are taken at a time out of n distinct things and arranged along a
circle, then the number of ways of doing this is given by n C r (r-1)!.
If clockwise and anti-clockwise are considered to be the same, then the total
number of circular permutations is given by (n-1)!/2.
n
P 0 =1
n
P1 = n
n
P n = n!/(n-n)! = n! /0! = n!/1 = n!
Combinations
If certain objects are to be arranged in such a way that the order of objects is
not important, then the concept of combinations is used.
The number of combinations of n things taken r (0 < r < n) at a time is given
by n C r = n!/r!(n-r)!
The relationship between combinations and permutations is n C r = n P r /r!
The number of ways of selecting r objects from n different objects subject to
certain condition like:
The number of ways to select some or all out of (p+q+t) things where p are
alike of first kind, q are alike of second kind and the remaining t are different
is = (p+1)(q+1)2 t – 1.
Combination of selecting s 1 things from a set of n 1 objects and s 2 things from a
set of n 2 objects where combination of s 1 things and s 2 things are independent
is given by n C s1 x n C s21 2
=
Number of ways of putting N as a product of two natural numbers is
If n is not a perfect square = ½ (a 1 + 1)(a 2 + 1) ….. (a k +1)
If n is a perfect square = ½ [(a 1 + 1)(a 2 + 1) ….. (a k +1) + 1].
Derangement and Results on Points
If n things are arranged in a row, then the number of ways in which they can
be deranged so that r things occupy wrong places while (n-r) things occupy
their original places, is
= n C n-r D r , where
Dr =
= nC0 Dn
=
If there are n points in plane put of which m (< n) are collinear, then the following
results hold good:
1. Total number of different straight lines obtained by joining these n points is
n
C 2 – m C 2 +1
2. Total number of different triangles formed by joining these n points is n C 3 – m C 3
3. Number of diagonals in polygon of n sides is n C 2 – n
4. If m parallel lines in a plane are intersected by a family of other n parallel
lines. Then total number of parallelograms so formed is m C 2 × n C 2
5. Number of triangles formed by joining vertices of convex polygon of n sides
is n C 3 of which
6. Number of triangles having exactly 2 sides common to the polygon = n