Probability-1

Combinatorial Analysis-Examples
Dr Prashant Gupta
Examples
 Example Revisited
A communication system consists of four antennas.

How many possibilities are there for exactly two antennas to be defective?
How many possibilities for exactly two consecutive antennas to be defective?

Naive way: List all the possiblities — 0110, 0101, 1010, 0011, 1001, 1100

Chapter 1 is all about how to count e↵ectively and systematically; the mathe-
matical theory of counting is formally known as combinatorial analysis.
 Outline

• Basic Principle of Counting

• Permutations
• Combinations
• Multinomial Coefficients
 Outline

• Basic Principle of Counting

• Permutations
• Combinations
• Multinomial Coefficients

4
 Basic Principle of Counting

Suppose that two experiments are to be performed. If experiment 1 can result in

any one of m possible outcomes, and if for each outcome of experiment 1, there
are n possible outcomes of experiment 2, then together there are mn possible
outcomes of the two experiments.

(1, 1) (1, 2) ··· (1, n)

(2, 1) (2, 2) ··· (2, n)
.. .. .. ..
. . . .
(m, 1) (m, 2) ··· (m, n)

Example: A small community has 10 women, each of whom has 3 children. If

one woman and one of her children are to be selected as mother and child of
the year. How many possibilities?

Solution: 10 ⇥ 3 = 30

5
 Generalization

Suppose that r experiments are to be performed. If experiment 1 has n1 possible

outcomes; for each of them, there are n2 possible outcomes of experiment 2; ......;
for each of them, there are nr possible outcomes of experiment r, then there are
totally n1 n2 · · · nr possible outcomes of the r experiments.

Example: How many di↵erent 7-place license plates are possible if the first 3
places are to be occupied by letters and the final 4 by numbers?

Solution: 26 ⇥ 26 ⇥ 26 ⇥ 10 ⇥ 10 ⇥ 10 ⇥ 10 = 175, 760, 000

What if repetition among letters or numbers is prohibited?

Solution: 26 ⇥ 25 ⇥ 24 ⇥ 10 ⇥ 9 ⇥ 8 ⇥ 7 = 78, 624, 000

6
 Outline

• Basic Principle of Counting

• Permutations
• Combinations
• Multinomial Coefficients

7
 Permutations

Example: How many di↵erent ordered arrangements of a, b, c?

Solution: abc; acb; bac; bca; cab; cba

In the above example, each ordering is known as a permutation. By the principle

of counting, there are
3⇥2⇥1=6
di↵erent permutations. Generally, for n objects, there are

n · (n 1) · (n 2) · · · 2 · 1 = n!

di↵erent permutations.

8
 Permutations
Example: Suppose we want to put 10 books on the bookshelf. Of these 10
books, 4 are math, 3 are chemistry, 2 are history, 1 is language. The books of
the same subject should be put together. How many di↵erent arrangements are
possible?

Solution: There are 4! ⇥ 3! ⇥ 2! ⇥ 1! ⇥ 4! = 6912 di↵erent arrangements. (Note

that without the restriction that the books of the same subject should be put
together, there are 10! di↵erent arrangements.)

Example: A class consists of 6 men and 4 women. An exam is given and no two
students obtain the same score.

(a): How many di↵erent rankings are possible? Solution: 10! = 3, 628, 800

(b): What if men and women are ranked separately? Solution: 4! ⇥ 6! = 17, 280

9
 Permutations

Example: How many di↵erent letter arrangements can be formed using the let-
ters PEPPER?

6!
Solution: 3!2! = 60.

In general, there are

n!
n1 !n2 !n3 ! · · · nr !
di↵erent permutations of n objects, of which n1 are alike, n2 are alike, ......, nr
are alike. (n1 + n2 + · · · + nr = n.)

Example: How many di↵erent signals are possible, by hanging 9 flags in a line,
of which 4 are white, 3 red and 2 blue?

9!
Solution: 4!3!2! = 1260.

10
 Outline

• Basic Principle of Counting

• Permutations
• Combinations
• Multinomial Coefficients

11
 Combinations
Example: How many di↵erent groups of 3 can be selected from the 5 items
A, B, C, D, E?

5⇥4⇥3
Solution: 3! = 10. (Hint: ABC, ACB, BAC, . . . are the same group.)

In general, if we select r items from n items, then the number of di↵erent groups
is given by
✓ ◆
n(n 1)(n 2) · · · (n r + 1) n! n
= , .
r! (n r)!r! r

Quick facts: ✓ ◆ ✓ ◆
n n n!
= =
r n r (n r)!r!
For example,
✓ ◆ ✓ ◆ ✓ ◆ ✓ ◆
n n n n n!
= =n and = =1=
1 n 1 n 0 n!0!

where 0! = 1 by convention.
12
 Combinations
Example: From 5 women and 7 men, how many di↵erent committees of 2 women
and 3 men can be formed?

Solution: ✓ ◆✓ ◆
5 7 5⇥4 7⇥6⇥5
= ⇥ = 350.
2 3 2⇥1 3⇥2⇥1

What if 2 of the men refuse to serve together?

Solution: Suppose the 2 men are A and B. Then there are situations:
1) both A and B are in: 52 51
2) A in, B out: 52 52
3) A out, B in: 52 52
4) neither is in: 52 53
Therefore, the are
✓ ◆✓ ◆ ✓ ◆✓ ◆ ✓ ◆✓ ◆
5 5 5 5 5 5
350 , or alternatively, ⇥2+
2 1 2 2 2 3

di↵erent committees.
13
 Combinations

Example: A communication system with n antennas has m defective. The sys-

tem will still be functional if no two consecutive antennas are defective. What
is the probability that the system is functional?

Solution:
n
1) The total number of possibilities: m
2) The number of cases where no two consecutive antennas are defective:
✓ ◆
n m+1
t1 t 1 t 1 · · · t 1t )
m
Therefore, the probability of being functional is
n m+1
m
n ,
m

where the probability is 0 if n m + 1 < m.

14
 A Combinatorial Identity
✓ ◆ ✓ ◆ ✓ ◆
n n 1 n 1
= +
r r 1 r

Proof:
✓ ◆ ✓ ◆
n 1 n 1 (n 1)! (n 1)! (n 1)!r (n 1)!(n r)
+ = + = +
r 1 r (r 1)!(n r)! r!(n 1 r)! r!(n r)! r!(n r)!
✓ ◆
(n 1)!(r + n r) (n 1)!n n! n
= = = = .
r!(n r)! r!(n r)! r!(n r)! r

Combinatorial Argument: Suppose we want to choose r items from n items.

Consider the following two cases:
1) The 1st item is chosen: nr 11
2) The 1st item is not chosen: n r 1
Therefore, it follows that
✓ ◆ ✓ ◆ ✓ ◆
n n 1 n 1
= + .
r r 1 r

15
 The Binomial Theorem

n ✓ ◆
X n
(x + y)n = xk y n k
k
k=0

Example: (x + y)3 = x3 + 3x2 y + 3xy 2 + y 3

Example: How many subsets are there of a set consisting of n items {1, 2, . . . , n}?

Solution:
n ✓ ◆
X n ✓ ◆
X
n n
= 1k 1n k
= 2n .
k k
k=1 k=1

Alternatively, the answer 2n can be obtained directly by considering whether

an item is in the subset or not, and using the basic principle of counting.

16
 Outline

• Basic Principle of Counting

• Permutations
• Combinations
• Multinomial Coefficients

17
 Multinomial Coefficient
Example: Suppose that n distinct items are to be divided into r distinct groups
of respective sizes n1 , n2 , . . . , nr . How many di↵erent divisions are possible?

Solution: We fill the r groups one by one. There are nn1 possible choices
for the first group, n n2n1 possible choices for the second group, ......, and
n n1 n2 ··· nr 1
nr choices for the rth group. By the basic principle of counting,
the number of di↵erent divisions is
✓ ◆✓ ◆✓ ◆ ✓ ◆
n n n1 n n1 n 2 n n1 n2 · · · nr 1
···
n1 n2 n3 nr
n! (n n1 )! (n n1 n2 )! (n n1 n2 · · · nr 1 )!
= ···
(n n1 )!n1 ! (n n1 n2 )!n2 ! (n n1 n2 n3 )!n3 ! 0!nr !
n!
=
n !n !n ! · · · nr !
✓1 2 3 ◆
n
, ,
n1 , n2 , . . . , nr
n
where n1 ,n2 ,...,nr is known as multinomial coefficient.

Question: Can the answer be rn ? Why?

18
 Multinomial Coefficient

Example: Suppose that n distinct items are to be divided into r distinct groups
of respective sizes n1 , n2 , . . . , nr . How many di↵erent divisions are possible?

Alternative Reasoning: Think of the problem as throwing n items into n holes:

t
| tt
{z· · · t} t
| tt
{z· · · t} . . . . . . t
| tt
{z· · · t}
n1 n2 nr

Each permutation corresponds to a way to group them, but if we take n! as

the total number of possible ways of grouping, we have over-counted because it
doesn’t matter how we permute the items within the same group. Therefore,
there are n1 !n2n!!···nr ! di↵erent possible divisions.

Or, we can think of the problem as assigning n labels to n items. Of the n

labels, n1 are alike, n2 are alike, ......, nr are alike. If one item receives the kth
label, then it is contained by the kth group. There are n1 !n2n!!···nr ! possible ways
to assign the labels.

19
 Multinomial Coefficient

Example: A class of 68 students are to be divided into 3 sections of sizes

21, 22, 25. How many di↵erent divisions are possible?

68! 68
Solution: 21!22!25! = 21,22,25 .

Example: 10 Children are to be divided into 2 basketball teams, each of 5 to

play against each other. How many di↵erent divisions are possible?

10!
Solution: 5!5! ⇥ 12 .

20
 The Multinomial Theorem

The Binomial Theorem:

n ✓ ◆
X n
(x + y)n = xk y n k
k
k=0

The Multinomial Theorem:

X ✓ ◆
n
(x1 + x2 + · · · + xr )n = xn1 xn2 · · · xnr r
n1 , n2 , . . . , nr 1 2
(n1 ,n2 ,...,nr ):
n1 +n2 +···+nr =n

21