Probset in Statistics

Counting
General:
1. How many three-digit even numbers can be formed from the digits 1,2,3,4 and 5 if each digit can be
used only once?
2. How many two-digit odd numbers can be formed from the numbers 2,4,6,8, and 9 if repetition of digits
is allowed?
3. A college freshman must take a Math course, a Science course, and an English course. If he or she may
select any of six Math courses, any of five Science courses and any of four English courses, in how
many ways can he or she arrange his or her program?
4. How many different license plates which consist of three letters and three numbers are there
altogether if
a. there are no restrictions?
b. The letters must be different?
c. The letters must be different and the first digit cannot be 0?
d. The letters and numbers must be different?
5. In how many ways can you order a meal in a restaurant if you have two choices of drinks (coffee or
tea), three main courses (chicken, beef or fish), and two desserts (pie or cake) where a full meal consist
of one drink, one main course, and one dessert?
6. In the 73rd UAAP season, eight sprinters from different universities are in the final match. In how many
ways can the sprinters receive a gold, a silver, or a bronze?
7. A committee will elect a president, a secretary, and a treasurer. If the committee consists of 35
members, how many possible outcomes for the three positions can occur? (Note that no member can
be elected in two positions.)
8. In how many ways can a female model dress up at a fashion show if she has five different pairs of
shoes, four different pants, five different pants, five different shirts, and four different hats?
9. A group of five teenagers went to a movie. In how many ways can they be arranged in a row of five
seats?
10. If you will choose two students from four students, in how many ways can you arrange these two
students who will sit on two different chairs?
11. In how many ways can you arrange five different starting positions in a basketball team with nine men
who can play any position?
12. In how many ways can you plant five different trees around a circular lot?
13. In how many ways can four boys and five girls sit in a row alternately?
14. Four married couples have brought eight seats in a row for a concert. In how many different ways can
these couples sit with no restrictions? Each couple sit together? All men sit together to the right of all
women?
A
1.

In traveling from Philippines to Los Angeles, Mr. De Castro wishes to stop over in Hawaii. If he has 4
airlines to choose from in the trip from Philippines to Hawaii and has 3 airlines to choose from in the
trip from Hawaii to Los Angeles, in how many ways can Mr. De Castro travel from Philippines to Los
Angeles?
2. A restaurant offers 2 different soups, 5 different main courses and 4 different drinks in its lunch menu.
Each order can select a soup, a main course and a drink from the menu. How many different lunches
are possible?
3. A lady has 5 blouses, 6 skirts, 3 handbags and 7 pairs of shoes. How many different outfits can she
wear?
4. A dance club has 10 male and 12 female members. A pair of male and female members has to be
chosen to join a contest. How many pairs can be formed?
5. A computer shop has 5 types of monitors, 4 CPU systems and 7 printers available. How many different
computer systems consisting of a monitor, a CPU system and a printer can be formed?
6. A florist has 20 types of flowers, 7 types of leaves and 11 different vases. A flower arrangement is to
be made by putting a type of flower and a type of leaf into a vase. How many different arrangements
can be made?
7. There is a 6-digit Personal Identification Number (PIN) encoded in each bank card for security reasons.
Find the number of possible PINs
(a) with repeated digits allowed,
(b) with no repeated digits.
8. In order to travel from city X to city Y, Peter has the following choices:
i.
He can fly directly from X to Y on one of the 3 airlines.
ii. He can fly from X to another city T on one of the 4 airlines and then travel from T to Y with one of
the 5 bus lines.
In how many ways can he travel from X to Y?
9. (a) In how many ways can 5 true-false questions be answered?
(b) In how many ways can 10 multiple choice questions, each with 4 options, be answered?
(c) A test paper consists of 5 true-false questions and 10 multiple choice questions with 4 options. In
how many ways can this paper be answered?
10. Monica has several ways to spend her evening. She can read a book, watch a video or go for a drink.
She can choose between 7 books, 5 videos and 3 coffee shops. How many choices does she have if

(a) she only takes one activity?

(b) she only takes two activities?
(c) she takes all three sorts of activities?
11. A boy has 5 different toy soldiers. In how many ways can he arrange them to stand in a line?
12. There are 8 students joining a mathematics contest. In how many ways can the first 3 positions be
filled?
13. A girl has 3 Filipino Books and 7 English books, all of which are different. In how many ways can she
arrange
(a) 6 of them on a shelf?
(b) the 3 Filipino books on the left and the 7 English books on the right of a shelf?
(c) all of them on a shelf with the Filipino books together?
14. In how many ways can the letters of the word WEEKEND be arranged?
15. A shop window designer has 7 balloons, of which 1 is white, 2 are blue and 4 are red. She hangs these
balloons in a line in the shop front. Find the number of arrangements she can make by using
(a) all 7 balloons,
(b) exactly 6 balloons.
16. Find the number of different ways in which 5 children can be arranged in a circle.
17. 4 men and 4 women join a social dinner at a round table. In how many ways can they be seated so
that no two women may be together?
18. How many ways are there to rank 6 candidates who attempt a fitness test?
19. From a collection of 10 hottest songs, a list ranking the top 4 must be made. How many ways are
there to make such a list?
20. A baby has 4 red, 1 blue, 1 green and 1 yellow cubes. In how many different ways can these cubes be
stacked up?
21. How many distinct permutations can be made from the letters of the word EXCELLENT?
22. In how many ways can 4 ladies be seated in a round coffee table?
23. Find the number of ways that 8 different flowers can be threaded to form a circular wreath. [Hint: A
wreath can be viewed from both sides.]
24. A family of 5 has dinner at a round table. Find the number of ways they can be seated if
(a) there is no restriction,
(b) the parents must be seated together,
(c) the parents must not be seated together.
25. A debate team of 3 students is selected from students A, B, C, and D. Find the number of possible
combinations.
26. Find the number of possible combinations of 49 cards from a deck of 52 playing cards.
27. There are 10 different bottles of red wine and 12 different bottles of white wine in stock. A shopkeeper
determines to display 2 bottles of red and 3 bottles of white wine on a rack. Find the number of
possible arrangements he can make.
28. Find the number of ways in which 20 persons may be seated at two round tables, each having 10
seats.
29. In how many ways can a committee of 3 principals be selected from a group of 10 principals?
30. There are 25 students in the Science Club. In how many ways can 4 officers be selected?
31. In a restaurant, 5 out of 11 different sets of lunch are listed on its menu daily. How many days will
elapse before the lunch menu has to be repeated?
32. Given 10 points in a plane, 5 of which lie in the same straight line and no other group of 3 or more
points can be drawn through by one straight line. Find the number of different triangles that can be
formed by using the 10 points as vertices.
33. In how many ways can a group of 5 printers be selected from 6 inkjet and 9 laser printers if the group
must contain
(a) exactly 3 laser printers?
(b) at least 3 laser printers?
34. A sample of 5 cars is selected for a destructive test from a group containing 7 small, 4 medium and 6
large cars. How many samples are possible
(a) with no restriction?
(b) with 2 small, 2 medium and 1 large car?
(c) with at least 1 small car?
35. A student has 15 different books. In how many ways can he arrange 12 of them on a shelf if
(a) there is no restriction?
(b) a particular book must be on the shelf?
(c) 2 particular books must be on the shelf and placed together?
B
1. (a) How many ways are there to pick a sequence of two different letters of the alphabet that appear in
the word HOUSE? In MATHEMATICS?
(b) How many ways are there to pick first a vowel and then a consonant from HOUSE? From
MATHEMATICS?
2. A store carries 7 styles of pants. For each style, there are 10 different possible waist sizes, 6 pants
lengths, and 4 color choices. How many different types of pants could the store have?

3. How many five-letter words (sequence of any five letters with repetition) are there? How many with
no repeated letters?
4. Given nine different English books, seven different French books, and five different German books:
(a) How many ways are there to select one book?
(b) How many ways are there to select three books, one of each language?
(c) How many ways are there to make a row of three books in which exactly one language is missing
(the order of the three books makes a different)?
5. How many ways are there to pick 2 different cards from a standard 52-card deck such that:
(a) The first card is an Ace and the second card is not a Queen?
(b) The first card is a spade and the second card is not a Queen? (Hint: Watch out for the Queen of
spades.)
6. How many ways are there to roll two distinct dice to yield a sum divisible by 3?
7. (a) How many different five-digit numbers are there (leading zeros, e.g., 00174, not allowed)?
(b) How many even five-digit numbers are there?
(c) How many five-digit numbers are there with exactly one 3?
(d) How many five-digit palindrome numbers (number that are the same when the order of their digits
is inverted, e.g., 15251) are there?
8. What is the probability that the top two cards in a shuffled deck do not form a pair?
9. A rumor is spread randomly among a group of 10 people by successively having one person call
someone, who calls someone, and so on. A person can pass the rumor on to anyone except the
individual who just called.
(a) By how many different paths can a rumor travel through the group in three calls? In n calls?
(b) What is the probability that if A starts the rumor, A receives the third calls?
(c) What is the probability that if A does not start the rumor, A receives the third call?
10. Re-solve the problem of counting the number of three-letter sequences without repetition using a, b, c,
d, e, f that have an e by first counting the number with no e.
11. How many three-letter sequences without repeated letters can be made using a, b, c, d, e, f in which
either e or f (or both) is used?
Comment on the answers: (a) 3 2 4 3, (b) 3 2 5 4, (c) 3 2 4 4 3 2 4, and (d) 6 5
4 4 3 2.
12. How many integers between 1000 and 10,000 are there with (make sure to avoid sequences of digit
with leading 0s):
(a) Distinct digits?
(b) Repetition of digits allowed but with no 2 or 4?
(b) Distinct digits and at least one of 2 and 4 must appear?
13. How many sequences of length 5 can be formed using the digits 0, 1, 2, , 9 with the property that
exactly two of the 10 digits appear, e.g., 05550?
14. How many different five-letter sequences can be made using the letters A, B, C, D with repetition such
that the sequence does not include the word BAD that is, sequences such as ABADD are excluded.
15. There are 15 different apples and 10 different pears. How many ways are there for Jack to pick an apple
or a pear and then for Jill to pick an apple and a pear?
16. How many times is 25 written when listing all numbers from 1 to 100,000?
(This is an extension of the previous exercise.)
17. How many four-digit numbers are there formed from the digits 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (with possible repetition)
that are divisible by 4?
18. There are 50 cards numbered from 1 to 50. Two different cards are chosen at random. What is the
probability that one number is twice the other number?
19. If three distinct dice are rolled, what is the probability that the highest value is twice the smallest
value?
20. There are 10 different people at a party. How many ways are there to pair them off into a collection of 5
pairings?
21. How many ways are there to place two identical kings on an 8 8 chessboard so that the kings are not
in adjacent squares? On an n m chessboard?
22. How many ways are there to place two identical queen on an 8 8 chessboard so that the queens are
not in a common row, column or diagonal?
23. How many ways are there for a man to invite some (nonempty) subset of his 10 friends to dinner?
24. How many ways are there to place a red checker and a black checker on two black squares of a
checkerboard so that the red checker can jump over the black checker? (A checker jumps on the
diagonal from in front to behind.)
C
1.

(a) Five students, Amy, Bonnie, Cathy, Donna and Eve are to be seated in a row. How many seating
arrangements can be made?
(b) The teacher would not allow Bonnie and Cathy to sit together as they are often chatting in class. If
this restriction is imposed, how many seating arrangements are possible?
2. Mr. and Mrs. Rivera and their son, and Mr. and Mrs. Alonzo are attending a dinner gathering at a round
table of eight. In how many ways that the members of the same family sit adjacent to each other?
3. (a) In a dinner-for-six social gathering 3 ladies and 3 men stand together to have a photo taken. In
how many ways can this be arranged if the men and ladies must alternate?
(b) They are to be seated at a round table to have a dinner. How many seating plans are possible if
men and ladies must alternate?
4. Five cards are dealt from a standard deck. In how many ways can a hand of Ace full-house be
obtained?

5.
6.

7.
8.

9.

In how many ways can 4 men be chosen from 5 Filipino and 6 Chinese so as to include (a) only one
Chinese? (b) at least one Chinese?
An examination paper consists of two parts and each part has 4 questions. A candidate is required to
answer any 5 questions, with at least 2 questions from each part.
(a) How many selections are possible for the candidate?
(b) If Richard is able to answer only 2 questions in Part 2, while he can answer any question in Part 1,
how many selections can he have?
A softball league has 14 teams. If every team must play every other team once in the first round of
league play, how many games must be scheduled?
(a) The executive committee of an alumni association consists of six members. A photo for press
release is to be taken with the chairman and deputy chairman in the middle positions. In how
many ways can this be arranged?
(b) Two representatives of the committee are to be nominated to attend a meeting that is held
quarterly. It is required that the chairman or the deputy chairman will participate with one of the
other four-committee members. How many pairs of representatives can be formed?
(c) Suppose the meeting mentioned in (b) is held on the first Saturday of January, April, July and
October, and the executive committee formed in December 2002 is to last two years. Also
suppose the members take turn at attending this meeting.
i.
Determine the number of attendance required of each of them during the two-year period.
ii. How many pairs of representative are required? Illustrate with a simple example.
(a) Mr. and Mrs. Legarda are to play mahjong with two of their friends. How many seating orientations
can be made? (Note: a seating orientation means the four players are seated in a particular
clockwise direction.)
(b) Mr. and Mrs. Legarda insist not to sit next to each other so as to avoid cooperation. In how many
ways can the four players it?
(c) After playing mahjong, the married couple will treat dinner to six of their friends at a long table.
Being the host and the hostess, Mr. and Mrs. Legarda sit on two sides (see the figure below).

How many seating arrangements are possible?

10. An art class consists of 12 students. All of them must present their portfolios and explain their work to
the instructor and their classmates at the end of the semester.
(a) If their names are drawn from a hat to determine who goes first, second, and so on, how many
presentation orders are possible?
(b) If their names are put in alphabetical order to determine who goes first, second, and so on, how
many presentation orders are possible?
11. Ricky is a university student who lives in an apartment close to campus. A street map is given below,
showing the locations of the campus (C), McDonald (M) and Rickys apartment(A).

C
Ricky has no class on Wednesday afternoon and he usually walks home. Before going home, he often
has lunch at McDonald with his classmates.
In how many ways can Ricky walk from campus to McDonald, and then from McDonald to his
apartment? Assume he can only walk on the pavements of the streets. You may also assume that
each of the above three places are located at the intersection of two streets.
12. A group of eight women and six men must select a four-person committee. How many committees are
possible if it must consist of the following?
(a) two women and two men
(b) any mixture of men and women
(c)a majority of women
13. In a deck of 52 playing cards(jokers not allowed),
(a) How many five-card poker hands containing exactly three aces are possible?
(b) How many five-card poker hands containing three of a kind are possible?

14. A 6/55 lottery requires choosing six of the numbers 1 through 53. How many different lottery tickets
can you choose? (Order is
not important, and the numbers do not repeat.)
15. Use Pascals Triangle to answer the following.
(a) In which row would you find the value of 4C2?
(b) In which row would you find the value of nCr?
(c) Is 4C2 the second number in the fourth row?
(d) Is 4C2 the third number in the fourth row?
(e) What is the location of nCr? Why?
16. A baseball league has six teams A, B, C, D, E, and F. All games are played at 7:30 p.m. on Fridays.
Each team must play each other team exactly once, and the following conditions must be met:
Team A plays team D first and team F second.
Team B plays team E first and team C third.
Team C plays team F first.
Which of the teams above must team B play second?
17. Sid and Nancy are planning their anniversary celebration, which will include viewing an art exhibit,
having dinner, and going dancing. They will go to either the Museum of Modern Art or the New Photo
Gallery, dine either at Stars, at Johnnys, or at the Chelsea, and go dancing either at Le Club or at
Lizards.
(a) Construct a tree diagram to list all possible ways in which Sid and Nancy can celebrate their
anniversary.
(b) How many different ways can Sid and Nancy celebrates their anniversary?
18. In how many ways can you select three out of eleven items under the following conditions?
(a) Order of selection is not important.
(b) Order of selection is important.
19. A volleyball league has 10 teams. How many different end-of-the-season rankings of first, second and
third place are possible (disregarding ties)?
D.
Most of these exercises require individual analysis, different for each problem. Remember to read
problems carefully to avoid misinterpretation. Pay special attention to whether a problem involves
arrangements or subsets. Note that the problems assume that people are distinct objects (no identical
people).
1. How many ways are there to arrange the cards in a 52-card deck?
2. How many ways are there to distribute seven different books among 15 children if no child gets more
than one book?
3. How many arrangements are there of the 8 letters in the word VISITING?
4. How many ways are there to pick a 5-person basketball team from 12 possible players? How many
teams if the weakest player and the strongest player must be on the team?
5. If a fair coin is flipped 9 times, what is the probability of 7 or more heads?
6. Given 5 distinct pairs of gloves, 10 distinct gloves in all, how many ways are there to distribute two
gloves to each of 5 sisters:
(a) If the two gloves someone receives might both be for the left hand or right hand?
(b) If each sister get one left-hand glove and one right-hand glove?
7. How many 5-letter sequences (formed from the 26 letters in the alphabet, with repletion allowed)
contain exactly one A and exactly two Bs?
8. How many n-digit ternary (0, 1, 2) sequences with exactly nine 0s are there?
Comment on the answers: (a) 3n 9, (b) 2n 9, and (c) C(n, 8)3n 9
9. How many ways can a committee be formed from four men and six women with:
(a) At least two men and at least twice as may women as men?
(b) Between 3 and 5 people, and Ms. Wonder is excluded?
(c) Five people, and not all of the three OHara sisters can be on the committee?
(d) Four members, at least two of whom are women, and Mr. and Mrs. Baggins cannot both be chosen?
10. Suppose that campus telephone numbers consist of any 4 digits (repetition allowed).
(a) What is the probability that the digit 6 appears at least twice in a campus telephone number?
(b) What is the probability that a campus telephone number contains exactly two different digits (e.g.,
2444)?
(c) What is the probability that a campus telephone number consists of 4 distinct digits in ascending
order (e.g. 2578)?
11. There are six different French books, eight different Russian books, and five different Spanish books.
How many ways are there to arrange the books in a row on a shelf with all books of the same language
grouped together?
12. How many 10-letter (sequences) are there using 5 different vowels and 5 different consonants (chosen
from the 21 possible consonants)? What is the probability that one of these words has no consecutive
pair of consonants?
Comment on the answers: (a) 3(n 1)!, (b) (3!(n 3)!)3, and (c) 3((n 1)!)3.
13. What is the probability that an arrangement of a, b, c, d, e, f has
(a) a and b side-by-side?
(b)a occurring somewhere before b?
c
b
14. How many triangles are formed by (assuming no three lines cross at a point): a

f
d

(a) Pieces of n nonparallel lines; for example, the four lines

below form four triangles: acd, abf, efd, and ebc?
(b) Pieces of n lines, m of which are parallel and the others
mutually nonparallel?
15. A man has n friends and invites a different subset of four of them to his house every night for a year
(365 nights). How large must n be?
16. Determine the Shapley-Shubik index of a 1-vote person and a 2-vote person in the councils with the
following make up:
(a) Three 1-vote people and one 2-vote person.
(b) Two 1-vote people and two 2-vote people (majority is 4).
(c) Four 1-vote people and three 2-vote people (majority is 6).
(d) Four 1-vote people and four 2-vote people (majority is 7).
17. How many arrangements of the 26 letters of the alphabet in which:
(a) a occurs before b?
(b)
a occurs before b and c occurs before d?
(c) the 5 vowels appear in alphabetical order?
18. How many 6-letter sequences are there with at least 3 vowels (A, E, I, O, U)? No repetitions are allowed.
19. How many arrangements of INSTRUCTOR are there in which where are exactly two consonants
between successive pairs of vowels?
20. Suppose a subset of 60 different days of the year are selected at random in a lottery. What is the
probability that there are 5 days from each month in the subset? (For simplicity, assume a year has 12
months with 30 days each.)
21. What is the probability of randomly choosing a permutation of the 10 digits 0, 1, 2, , 9 in which:
(a) An odd digit is in the first position and 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 is in the last position?
(b) 5 is not in the first position and 9 is not in the last position?
22. What is the probability that a five-card hand has
(a) At least one of each of the four values: Ace, King, Queen, and Jack?
(b) The same number of hearts and spades?
E.
1. What fraction of all arrangements of INSTRUCTOR have:
(a) Three consecutive vowels?
(b) Two consecutive vowels?
2. How many ways are there to form an (unordered) collection of 4 pairs of 2 people chosen from a group
of 30 people?
3. How many arrangements of SYSTEMATIC are there in which each S is followed by a vowel (this includes Y)?
4. (a) What is the probability that k is the smallest integer in a subset of four different numbers chosen
from 1 through 20(1 < k < 17)?
(b) What is the probability that k is the second smallest?
5. How many ways are there to place eight identical black pieces and eight identical white pieces on an 8
8 chessboard?
6. What is the probability that 2 (or more) people in a random group of 25 people have a common
birthday? (This is the famous Birthday Paradox Problem.)
7. A baseball team has 5 players, 3 in forward positions (this includes the center) and 2 in guard
positions. How many way are there to pick a team if there are 6 forwards, 4 guards, and 2 people who
can play forward or guard?
8. Given a collection of 2n objects, n identical and the other n all distinct, how many different
subcollections of n objects are there?
9. Ten fish are caught in a lake, marked, and then returned to the lake. Two days later 20 fish are again
caught, 2 of which have been marked.
(a) Find the probability of 2 of the 20 fish being marked if the lake has k fish (assuming the fish are
caught at random).
(b) What value of k maximizes the probability?
10. How many arrangements of the letters in PREPOSTEROUS are there in which the first vowel to appear is
an E?
11. What is the probability that a random five-card hand has:
(a) Exactly one pair (no three of a kind or two pairs)?
Comment on the answers: (a) 13 C(4, 2) C(48, 3)/C(52, 5), (b) 13 C(4, 2) 48 44 40/C(52,
5), and (c) (52 3 48 44 40)/(52 51 50 49 48).
(b) One pair or more (three of a kind, two pairs, four of a kind, full house)?
(c) The cards dealt in order of decreasing value?
(d) At least one spade, at least one heart, no diamonds or clubs, and the values of the spades are all
greater than the values of the hearts?
12. How many subsets of three different of three different integers between 1 and 90 inclusive are there
whose sum is:
(a) An even number?
(b) Divisible by 3?
(c) Divisible by 4?
13. If a coin is tossed eight times, what is the probability of getting:
(a) Exactly four heads in a row?
(b) At least four heads in a row?
14. How many triangles can be formed by joining different sets of three corners of an octagon? How many
triangles if no pair of adjacent corners is permitted?
15. (a) How many points of intersection are formed by the chords of an n-gon (assuming no three of these
lines cross at one point)?
(b) Into how many line segments are the lines in part (a) cut by the intersection points?
(c) Use Eulers formula r = e v + 2 and parts (a) and (b) to determine the number of regions formed
by the chords of an n-gon.

16. How many triangles are formed by (assuming no three lines cross at a point):
(a) Pieces of three chords of a convex 10-gon such that the triangles are wholly within the 10-gon (a
corner of the 10-gon cannot be a corner of any of these triangles)?
(b) Pieces of three chords ort outside edges of a convex n-gon?
17. A man has seven friends. How many ways are there to invite a different subset of three of these friends
for a dinner on seven successive nights such that each pair of friends are together at just one dinner?
F.
8

1.

2.

Find the coefficient of

(a)

Find the constant term in the expansion of

(b)

Find the coefficient of

3.
4.

1
3 1
in the expansion of 2 x 3 where x 0.
x
x 2

If the coefficient of
(a)

1
x
2 x

12

where x 0 .

2
x 20 in the expansion of 1 2 x x .
12

2
x k in the expansion of 3 2 x x 1 x

34

is zero, find the value of k.

ar , the coefficient of x r , in the expansion of 1 x 1 2 x 1 4 x where n is a

n

Find

positive integer.
(b)
5.

Find the ratio

a3 : an 3 where n 9.

1 ax 2 x

2 6

In the expansion of

where

a , the coefficients of x 2 and x11 are 27 and 192

respectively. Find the value of a and the coefficients of

6.

x3 .

1 from Pascals triangle. Draw a hexagon around your chosen entry and the six

Pick any entry

k

adjacent entries (see Figure below for

10 ). Show that this sum of the seven entries in the

entries in the hexagon is twice the entry directly below the hexagon.

1
1
1

6
7

10
15

21
28

35

56

10

70

5
6

21

56

28

1
7

1
1

1
1

5
6

10

21

15

28

1
1

15

35

20

10

20

35

56

15

35

70

5
6

21

56

28

1
7

1
8