Math

Permutations 

A Permutation of a set is an ordered combination of its elements. The number of permutations of elements taken at a time is denoted by  and is determined by:

                                                                                     

 the factorial notation is defined as:

Example: A physics olympiad team consists of 4 members. a) In how many ways can all members be arranged in a row for a photo? b) How many ways can the captain and vice-captain be chosen?

a) We can use either the fundamental counting principle or permutations to solve this problem. Let's use the fundamental counting principle:

This is a permutation problem in which we have 4 members and we take 4 at a time, therefore:

In the above equation we used:

                                                                                                        

b) This is a permutation problem in which we have 4 members and we take 2 at a time:

Example: In how many ways can 5 girls and 4 boys be seated on a bench? a) If there are no restrictions. b) If girls and boys alternate.

a) If there are no restrictions, we have:

b) If boys and girls alternate, we should have a girl on each end:

This permutation problem can be interpreted as having 5 girls and taking 5 at a time and having 4 boys and taking 4 at a time: