MDM4U

5.2 Combinations
1) Ali, Becky, Chris and Don are applying for the 2 positions of president and vice-president.
a) How many different ways can these 2 positions be filled? _____ Show these different ways by
showing all possibilities (For example: for Ali to be president and Becky to be vice president, write
“ab”; then write “ba” for Becky as president and Ali as vice president)

b) Now what if there were no ranked positions on this committee and they just needed 2 leaders? Use
your possibilities above and cross out the ones that are no longer needed. How many ways could
those 2 spots be filled? _____

c) How many times smaller is your answer to (b) than your answer to (a)?

d) Using a formula that involves a permutation and division, can you think of a “formula” for this
question where you could compute the answer without drawing the cases?

2) When selecting 3 letters from the word “DOGS”,

a) How many different ways can these 3 letters be arranged in order? _____ Show these different ways
by showing all possibilities

b) What if the order did not matter? How many ways would there be?

c) How many times smaller is your answer to (b) than your answer to (a)?

d) Using a formula that involves a permutation and division, can you think of a “formula” for this
question where you could compute the answer without drawing the cases?
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3) Using the letters of the word, “COMPUTER”, how many ways can you select 5 letters…
a) to arrange in different orders, when the order does matter? (you do not need to show this)

b) if the order does not matter? (try to use a formula using permutations and division that you have used
in the previous two questions to solve this)

Chapter 4 – Permutations: arrangement of distinct items where the order is important (rank, different
positions, etc.)
Chapter 5 – Combinations: arrangement of distinct items where the order is not important

n! Pr n!
Permutation: n Pr  Combination: n Cr  n

(n  r)! r! (n  r)!r!
 n
 Notation for a combination can be n Cr or C(n,r) or  
r
 This is read “n choose r”
4) Complete the following table:
P(4, 0) = C(4, 0) =
P(4, 1) = C(4, 1) =
P(4, 2) = C(4, 2) =
P(4, 3) = C(4, 3) =
P(4, 4) = C(4, 4) =

n!
5) Use the formula n Cr  to find the following combinations. Use the button on your
(n  r)!r!
calculator to check.
 10 
a) 6 C3 b)  
7 
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6) 10 students are running for student council. How many ways can 2 members be selected to be on this
council if:
a) they will be selected to be president and vice-president?

b) they will be on the committee together, sharing the same roles?

7) There are 20 grade nine students (12 boys) running for student council. How many different ways
could 3 students be chosen if: (Since it does not specify any order or ranking, we assume order does
not matter)

a) there are no restrictions? b) there must be exactly 1 boy?

c) there must be at least one girl? d) there must be at least two boys?