Distributing Balls into Boxes

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Home > Quantitative aptitude questions and answers with explanation > Permutations and Combinations > Distributing Balls into
Boxes

Basics Concepts and

Formulas
(Permutations and
Combinations)
Useful Relations
(Permutations and
Combinations)

Distributing Balls into Boxes

Here, we are dealing with the number of ways of distributing k balls into n
boxes under various conditions.
The conditions that are generally asked are given below

More Concepts and

Formulas
(Permutations)

1.

The balls are either distinct or identical.

2.

The boxes are either distinct or identical.

Permutations under
Restrictions

3.

No box can contain more than one ball or Any box may contain
more than one ball.

4.

No box can be empty or any box can be empty.

More Concepts and

Formulas
(Combinations)
Combinations under
Restrictions
Division and
Distribution of Objects
Distributing Balls into
Boxes
Counting Integral
Solutions
More Formulas
(Permutations and
Combinations)
Geometrical Figures
(Permutations and
Combinations)

This is an area which many students choose to ignore. However these

concepts will help us in solving many advanced problems in combinatorics
and permutations and combinations.
We can use the principles of permutations and combinations to deal with
problems of distributing balls into boxes.
The concept of identical boxes are more complicated and generally studied
in detail in combinatorics.
The below table explains the number of ways in which k balls can
be distributed into n boxes under various conditions.
All the below mentioned cases are derived under the assumption that the
order in which the balls are placed into the boxes is not important. (i.e., if
a box has many balls, the order of the balls inside the box is not
important).

Solved Examples - Set

1
Solved Examples - Set
2

Distribution of

Solved Examples - Set

3

into n
Boxes

k Balls

How many balls boxes can contain

1
(At
most
one)

No
Restrictions

Solved Examples - Set

4

1
(At least
one)

=1
(Exactly one)

S(k,n)
n!

Solved Examples - Set

5

nk
Distinct

Distinct
(formula 1)

Pk

(formula
3)
(formula
(See
2)
more
details

Pn = n! if k = n

if k n

(formula 4)

13-Nov-14 1:20 PM

Distributing Balls into Boxes

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below)
(n+k-1)

Identical Distinct

Ck

(formula 5)

Distinct

Identical (formula 9)
(See more
details
below)

Ck

(k-1)

C(n-1) 1
0

(formula (formula
6)
7)
1
if
kn
0
if
k>n

(formula 8)

S(k,n)

(formula
11)
(See
more
(formula
details
10)
below)

1
if
kn
0
if
Identical Identical (formula 13) k > n
(See more
(formula
details
14)
below)

if k = n
if k n

1
0

if k = n
if k n

(formula 12)

P(k, n)
(formula
15)
(See
more
details
below)

1
0

if k = n
if k n

(formula 16)

S(k,n) Stirling number of the second kind and can be defined as

Special Cases :
S(0,0) = 1,
S(k,0) = 0 for k 1
S(k,n) = 0 for k < n

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P(k,n) = The number of partitions of the integer k into n parts.

Formula for P(k,n) is much harder than that of S(k, n). The following
example will explain how we can find the value of P(k,n).
What is the value of P(6,3) ?
The partitions of 6 into 3 parts are
4+1+1
3+2+1
2+2+2
(Note that 4 + 1 + 1 ,1 + 4 + 1, and 1 + 1 + 4. all are same. Similarly
we need to consider all other cases as well)
Hence the number of partitions of 6 into 3 parts are = 3
=> P(6,3) = 3
What is the value of P(6,2) ?
The partitions of 6 into 2 parts are
1+5
2+4
3+3
Hence the number of partitions of 6 into 2 parts are = 3
=> P(6,2) = 3
What is the value of P(6,1) ?
Here, we count the number of partitions of 6 into 1 part.
Clearly the number of such partitions = 1
=> P(6,1) = 1
Now try to find out the value of P(6,4)
The partitions of 6 into 4 parts are
1+1+1+3
1+2+2+2
Hence the number of partitions of 6 into 4 parts are = 2
=> P(6,4) = 2

Special Cases: P(0, 0) = P(k, k) = P(k, k-1) = P(k, 1) = 1

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