The pigeonhole principle

A drawer in a dark room contains red socks, green socks, and blue socks. How many socks must you withdraw to be sure that you have a matching pair? A 1st sock 2nd sock 3rd sock 4th sock f B red green blue

Four socks are enough to ensure a matched pair.

The pigeonhole principle

If n pigeons fly into k pigeonholes with k < n, then some pigeonhole contain at least two pigeons.

The pigeonhole principle

If n pigeons fly into k pigeonholes with k < n, then some pigeonhole contain at least two pigeons. We can use this simple little fact to prove complex things.

The pigeonhole principle

If k is a positive integer and k + 1 or more object are placed into k boxes, then there is at least one box containing two or more of the objects. proof by contrapositive Suppose that none of the k boxes contains more than n object. Then the total number of objects would be at most k. This is a contradiction, because there are at least k + 1objects.

The pigeonhole principle

When trying to solve a problem with the pigeonhole principle, need to identify three things: The set A (the pigeons) The set B (the pigeonholes) The function f (the rule for assigning pigeons to pigeonholes)

Examples
Among any group of 367 people, there must be at least two with the same bday, because there are only 366 possible bdays.

In a group of 27 English words, there must be at least two that begin with the same letter because there are 26 letters in the English alphabet.

Examples
Show that in any set of six classes, each meeting regularly once a week on a particular day of the week, there must be two that meet on the same day, assuming that no classes are held in weekends.

Pigeons: There are six classes. Pigeonholes: There are five days on which classes may meet. Each class must meet on a day (each pigeon must occupy a pigeonhole). By the pigeonhole principle at least one day must contain at least two classes.

Examples
A drawer contains a dozen brown socks and a dozen black socks, all unmatched. A man takes socks out at random in the dark. How many socks he must take out to be sure that he has at least two socks of the same color? How many socks he must take out to be sure that he has at least two black socks?

Next
Counting Permutations Combinations Binomial coefficients

A chess problem
In how many different ways can we place a pawn (p), a knight (k), and a bishop (b) on a chessboard so that no two pieces share a row or a column?

k p b b p k

Permutations and combinations

My fruit salad is a combination of apples, grapes, and bananas. We don't care what order the fruits are in, they could also be "bananas, grapes and apples" or "grapes, apples and bananas", its the same fruit salad. The combination of the safe is 472. We do care about the order. "724" would not work, nor would "247". It has to be exactly 4-7-2. If the order doesn't matter, it is a combination. If the order does matter it is a permutation.

Permutations
Five athletes (Carole, Bob, Mark, Kelly and John) compete in an Olympic event. Gold, silver and bronze medals are awarded: in how many ways can the awards be made? Order matters!!! The case that Carole wins gold and Bob wins silver is different from the case Bob wins gold and Carole wins silver.

Permutations
If r objects are selected from a set of n objects, any particular arrangement of these r objects (say, in a list) is called a permutation. In other words, a permutation is an ordered arrangement of objects. Let S = {a, b, c} c, b, a is a permutation of S b, c, a is a different permutation of S

Permutations
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 number of r-permutations of a set of n elements is denoted by P(n, r). Let S = {a, b, c}. The 2-permutation of S are the ordered arrangements: a, b; a, c; b, a; b, c; c, a; c, b There are six 2-permutation of a set of 3 elements. P(3, 2) = 6;

Permutations
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 number of r-permutations of a set of n elements is denoted by P(n, r). Let S = {a, b, c}. The 2-permutation of S are the ordered arrangements: a, b; a, c; b, a; b, c; c, a; c, b There are six 2-permutation of a set of 3 elements. P(3, 2) = 6;

The poker hand A, 5, 7, 10, K is one of P(52, 5) permutations.

Permutations
Number of poker hands (5 cards): P (52,5) = 52 51 50 49 48 = 311875200 THEOREM 1 If n is a positive integer and r is an integer with 1 r n, then there are
P ( n,r) = n ( n 1) ( n 2) ( n r + 1)

r-permutations of a set with n distinct elements.

Permutations
THEOREM 1 If n is a positive integer and r is an integer with 1 r n, then there are
P ( n,r) = n ( n 1) ( n 2) ( n r + 1)

r-permutations of a set with n distinct elements.

proof: 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)

Permutations
COROLLARY 1: If n and r are integers with 0 r n, then

P ( n,r) =

n! (n r)!

Permutation calculation
Background: Factorial notation 1! = 1; 2! = 21 = 2 ; 3! = 321 = 6 In general, n!= n(n-1)(n-2) 321 for any positive integer n. It is customary to let 0! = 1 by definition. Calculation of permutation

P ( n,r) = n ( n 1) ( n 2) ( n r + 1) n ( n 1) ( n 2) ( n r + 1)( n r)! = (n r)! = n! (n r)!

Permutations
P(n, 0): There is only one ordered arrangement of zero objects, the empty set. n! n! P ( n,0) = = =1 (n 0)! n! P(n, 1): There are n ordered arrangements of one object. n! P ( n,1) = =n (n 1)! P(n, n): There are n! ordered arrangements of n distinct objects (product rule)
P ( n,n ) = n! = n! (n n )!

Examples
Five athletes (Carole, Bob, Mark, Kelly and John) compete in an Olympic event. Gold, silver and bronze medals are awarded: in how many ways can the awards be made?

The number of different ways to award the medals is the number of 3-permuations of a set with 5 elements. Hence, there are P(5, 3) = 543 = 60 possible ways to award the medals.

Examples
How many ways are there for 5 people in this class of 27 students to give presentations?

P(27,5) = 2726252423 = 9,687,600 Note that the order they go in does matter in this example!

Examples
How many permutations of the letters ABCDEFGH contain the string ABC?

Because the letters ABC must occur as a block, we need to find the number of permutations of 6 objects, no 8 (i.e. ABC, D, E, F, G, H). Because these six objects can occur in order, there are 6! = 720 permutations of the letters ABCDEFGH in which ABC occurs as a block.

Combinations
What if order doesnt matter? In poker, the following two hands are equivalent: A, 5, 7, 10, K K, 10, 7, 5, A

Combinations
A combination is the same as a subset. When we ask for the number of combinations of r objects chosen from a set of n objects, we are simply asking: How many different subsets of r objects can be chosen from a set of n objects? NOTE: The order doesnt matter!

Combinations
A r-combination of elements of a set is an unordered selection of r elements from the set. Let S = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} Then {1, 3, 4} is a 3-combination from S. The number of r-combinations of a set of n elements is denoted by C(n, r). NOTE C(n, r) is also denoted by n and is called a binomial r coefficient.

Combinations
THEOREM 2: The number of r-combinations of a set with n elements, where n is a nonnegative integer and r is an integer with 0 r n, equal

n! C ( n,r) = r!( n r)!

proof: The r-permutations of a set can be obtained by forming the C(n, r) r-combinations of the set , and then ordering the elements in each r-combination, which can be done in P(r, r) ways. Thus, P(n, r) = C(n, r) P(r, r).

C ( n,r) =

P ( n,r) n! ( n r)! n! = = P ( r,r) r! ( r r)! r!( n r)!

Combinations
For each combination, there are r! ways to permute the r chosen object. C(n, r) r! = P(n, r)

Examples
How many different poker hands are there (5 cards)?

52! 52! 52 51 50 49 48 47! C (52,5) = = = = 2598960 5!(52 5)! 5!47! 5 4 3 2 1 47!

In how many ways a committee of five can be selected from among the 80 employees of a company?

80! 80! 80 79 78 77 76 75! C (80,5) = = = = 24040016 5!(80 5)! 5!75! 5 4 3 2 1 75!

Combinations simplification
COROLLARY Let n and r be nonnegative integers with r n. Then C(n, r) = C(n, n r). proof Form the theorem 2

and

n! C ( n,r) = r!( n r)!

n! n! C ( n,n r) = = (n r)![ n (n r)]! (n r)!r!

Hence, C(n, r) = C(n, n r).

Combinations
C(n, 0): There is only one way to chose 0 objects from the n objects
C ( n,0) = n! =1 0!( n 0)!

C(n, 1): There are n ways to select 1 object from n objects.

C ( n,1) = n! =n 1!( n 1)!

C(n, n): There is only one way to select n objects from n objects, and that is to choose all the objects n! C ( n,n ) = =1 n!( n n )!

Combinatorial proof
A combinatorial proof is a proof that uses counting arguments to prove a theorem Rather than some other method such as algebraic techniques Essentially, show that both sides of the proof manage to count the same objects. Proof outline: Define a set S Show that |S| = n by counting one way. Show that |S| = m by counting another way. Conclude that n = m

Permutations or Combinations ?
The distinction between permutations and combinations lies in whether the objects are to be merely selected or both selected and ordered. If ordering is important, the problem involves permutations; if ordering is not important the problem involves combinations.

You want to count the number of Subsets of an n-element set Outcomes of successive events Outcome of disjoint events Outcomes given specific choices at each step Elements in overlapping sections of related sets Ordered arrangements of r out of n distinct objects Ways to select r out of n distinct objects

Technique to try Use formula 2n Multiply the number of outcomes for each event Add the number of outcomes for each event Draw a decision tree and count the number of paths Use principle of inclusion and exclusion formula Use P(n,r) formula Use C(n,r) formula

Binomial coefficients
Counting gives insight into one of the basic theorems of algebra. A binomial is a sum of two terms, e.g. a + b Consider (a + b)4:

(a + b) 4 = aaaa + aaab + aaba + aabb

+ abaa + abab + abba + abbb + baaa + baab + baba + babb + bbaa + bbab + bbba + bbbb

There are 24 terms,

Binomial coefficients
Consider (a + b)4:

(a + b) 4 = aaaa + aaab + aaba + aabb

+ abaa + abab + abba + abbb + baaa + baab + baba + babb + bbaa + bbab + bbba + bbbb

There are 24 terms, The numbers of terms with k copies of b and n k copies of a is:
n n! = k!( n k )! k

Lets group equivalent terms: aaab = aaba = abaa = baaa The coefficient of a n k b k is n k For n = 4
4

4 4 4 4 4 a 4 b 0 + a 3b1 + a 2b 2 + a1b 3 + a 0b 4 (a + b) = 1 0 2 3 4

Binomial theorem
THEOREM Let a and b be variables, and let n be a nonnegative integer. Then

(a + b)

n n k k = a b k =0 k
n

Binomial coefficient identities from the binomial theorem

Pascals identity and triangle

Let n and k be positive integers with n k. Then
n n n + 1 + = k 1 k k

proof

Pascals identity and triangle

n n Pascals identity, together with the initial conditions 0 = n = 1

can be used to recursively define binomial coefficients.

Permutations with repetition

How many strings of length r can be formed from the English alphabet?
This is an example of counting permutations when repetition of elements is allowed.

This is done by using the product rule

Because there are 26 letters, and because each letter can be used repeatedly, there are 26r strings of length r

Permutations with repetition

Theorem 1: The number of r-permutations of a set of n objects with repetition allowed is nr

Combinations with repetition

How many ways are there to select five bills from a cash box containing $1 bills, $2 bills, $5 bills, $10bills, $20 bills, $50 bills, and $100 bills? Assume that the order in which bills are chosen does not matter, that the bills of each denomination are indistinguishable, and that there are at least five bills of each type. This problem involves counting 5-combinations with repetition allowed from a set with seven elements.

Combinations with repetition

Theorem 2: There are C(n+r-1, r) = C(n+r-1, n-1) r-combinations from a set with n elements when repetition of elements is allowed.