ELEMENTARY COUNTING PRINCIPLES

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 THE SUM RULE:
 If a task can be done either in one of 𝑛1 ways or in one of 𝑛2
ways, where none of the set of 𝑛1 ways is the same as any of
the set of 𝑛2 ways, then there are 𝑛1 + 𝑛2 ways to do the
task.
 Example:
 A student can choose a computer project from one of
three lists. The three lists contain 23, 15,and 19
possible projects, respectively. No project is on more
than one list. How many possible projects are there to
choose from?
 Solution: The student can choose a project by
selecting a project from the first list, the second list, or
the third list. Because no project is on more than one
list, by the sum rule there are
 23 + 15 + 19 = 57 ways to choose a project.
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 Suppose that a procedure can be broken down into a
sequence of two tasks. If there are 𝑛1 ways to do the first
task and for each of these ways of doing the first task, there
are 𝑛2 ways to do the second task, then there are 𝑛1 𝑛2 ways
to do the procedure.
 EXAMPLE 1: A new company with just two employees,
Sanchez and Patel, rents a floor of a building with 12
offices. How many ways are there to assign different offices
to these two employees?
 Solution: The procedure of assigning offices to these two
employees consists of assigning an office to Sanchez, which
can be done in 12 ways, then assigning an office to Patel
different from the office assigned to Sanchez, which can be
done in 11 ways. By the product rule, there are
 12 · 11 = 132 ways to assign offices to these two employees.
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 Both are ways to count the possibilities.
 The difference between them is whether order
matters or not.
 Consider a poker hand:
◦ A♦, 5♥, 7♣, 10♠, K♠
 Is that the same hand as:
◦ K♠, 10♠, 7♣, 5♥, A♦
 Does the order the cards are handed out matter?
◦ If yes, then we are dealing with permutations.
◦ If no, then we are dealing with combinations.

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 A permutation is an ordered arrangement of the
elements of some set S
◦ Let S = {a, b, c}
◦ c, b, a is a permutation of S
◦ b, c, a is a different permutation of S
 An r-permutation is an ordered arrangement of r
elements of the set
◦ A♦, 5♥, 7♣, 10♠, K♠ is a 5-permutation of the set
of cards
 The notation for the number of r-permutations:
P(n,r) n!
( n  r )!

◦ The poker hand is one of P(52,5) permutations.

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 Number of poker hands (5 cards):
◦ P(52,5) = 52*51*50*49*48 = 311,875,200.
 Number of (initial) blackjack hands (2 cards):
◦ P(52,2) = 52*51 = 2,652.
Example:
 There are 27 students in the class.How many ways are
there for 5 people in this class to give presentations?
◦ P(27,5) = 27*26*25*24*23 = 9,687,600
◦ Note that the order they go in does matter in this
example!

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 There are n ways to choose the first element.
◦ n-1 ways to choose the second.
◦ n-2 ways to choose the third.
◦…
◦ n-r+1 ways to choose the rth element
 By the product rule, that gives us:
P(n,r) = n(n-1)(n-2)…(n-r+1)

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 How many permutations of {a, b, c, d, e, f, g} end with
a?
◦ Note that the set has 7 elements
 The last character must be a
◦ The rest can be in any order
 Thus, we want a 6-permutation on the set {b, c, d, e, f, g}
 P(6,6) = 6! = 720.

 Why is it not P(7,6)?

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 What if order doesn’t matter?
 In poker, the following two hands are equivalent:
◦ A♦, 5♥, 7♣, 10♠, K♠
◦ K♠, 10♠, 7♣, 5♥, A♦

 The number of r-combinations of a set with n

elements, where n is non-negative and 0≤r≤n is:

n!
C (n, r ) 
r!(n  r )!

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1.How many different poker hands are there (5 cards)?
 Solution:

52! 52! 52 * 51* 50 * 49 * 48 * 47!

C (52,5)     2,598,960
5!(52  5)! 5!47! 5 * 4 * 3 * 2 *1* 47!

2. How many different (initial) blackjack hands are there?

Solution:

52! 52! 52 * 51
C (52,2)     1,326
2!(52  2)! 2!50! 2 *1

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Exercises:
1. Out of 5 Mathematician and 7 Statistician a committee consisting of 2
Mathematician and 3 Statistician is to be formed. In how many ways this can
be done if
a) There is no restriction
b) One particular Statistician should be included
c) Two particular Mathematicians can not be included on the committee.
2. If 3 books are picked at random from a shelf containing 5 novels, 3 books of
poems, and a dictionary, in how many ways this can be done if
a) There is no restriction.
b) The dictionary is selected?
c) 2 novels and 1 book of poems are selected?

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 Let 𝐴1 and 𝐴2 be two sets,
| A1  A2 | = | A1 | + | A2 | - | A1  A2 |
 Similarly,

| A1  A2  A3 | = | A1 | + | A2 | + | A3 |

- | A1  A2 | - | A1  A3 | - | A2  A3 |

+ | A1  A2  A3 |

Where 𝐴1 , 𝐴2 and 𝐴3 are sets.

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 Generally,
| A1  A2  . . .  An | = Σ | Ai |
- Σ | Ai  Aj |
+ Σ | Ai  Aj  Ak |
- ...
+ (-1)n-1 Σ | A1  A2  ...  An |
Where 𝐴1 , 𝐴2 ,…,𝐴𝑛 are n sets.

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 Find the number of mathematics students at a college taking
at least one of the languages French, German, and Russian,
given the following data:65 study French, 20 study French
and German, 45 study German, 25 study French and
Russian, 8 study all three languages. 42 study Russian, 15
study German and Russian, We want to find n(F ∪ G ∪ R)
where F, G, and R denote the sets of students studying
French, German, and Russian, respectively.
 By the Inclusion–Exclusion Principle,
 n(F ∪ G ∪ R)= n(F ) + n(G) + n(R) − n(F ∩ G) − n(F ∩ R) −
n(G ∩ R) + n(F ∩ G ∩ R)
 = 65 + 45 + 42 − 20 − 25 − 15 + 8 = 100
 Namely, 100 students study at least one of the three
languages.
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 Theorem 1:
 If k is a positive integer and k + 1 or more objects
are placed into k boxes, then there is at least one
box containing two or more of the objects.
 i.e., if there are more pigeons than pigeonholes,
then there must be at least 1 pigeonhole that has
more than one pigeon in it.

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 In a group of 367 people, there must be two
people with the same birthday
◦ As there are 366 possible birthdays

 In a group of 27 English words, at least two

words must start with the same letter
◦ As there are only 26 letters.

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 THEOREM 2: If N objects are placed into k
 boxes, then there is at least one box containing at
least N/k objects.
 Example: Among 100 people, there are at least
100/12 = 9 born on the same month
 How many students in a class must there be to ensure
that 6 students get the same grade (one of A, B, C, D,
or F)?
◦ The “boxes” are the grades. Thus, k = 5
◦ Thus, we set N/5 = 6.
◦ Lowest possible value for N = 5 · 5 + 1 = 26.

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 THEOREM 1: (the binomial theorem)
Let x and y be variables, and let n be a nonnegative integer.
 Then

 The binomial theorem gives the coefficients of the

expansion of powers of binomial expressions.
 A binomial expression is simply the sum of two terms,
such as x + y.

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 Often we need to raise a binomial to a power. In this
section we'll explore a way to do just that without lengthy
multiplication.

We can easily see the pattern on the x's and the a's. But what about the
coefficients? Make a guess and then as we go we'll see how you did.
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 Let's list all of the coefficients on the x's and the a's and
look for a pattern

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 Thecoefficients of the binomial expansion are called
binomial coefficients. The coefficients have symmetry.

29 = 512 and 10(29 ) = 5120.

Hence the last two terms are 5120𝑥 + 𝑦10 .
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