ARTICLE ON PERMUTATIONS AND COMBINATIONS

IN OUR DAILY LIFE

By: Lidhiya Raphael
ABSTRACT

The main objective of the study is to make students aware about the
applications of permutations and combinations. The project is mainly designed
for students, who are unware of the real life applications of permutations and
combinations that it can play an important role in our lives. The principles or
theories are applied from allocation of telephone number to the seating
arrangement in an auditorium.

The study of permutation and combinations is at the root of several

topics in mathematics such as number theory, algebra, geometry, probability
statistics, discrete mathematics, graph theory and many other specialties.

Learning this will help the children to develop their critical thinking and
problem solving ability.
 INTRODUCTION

A car manufacturer is preparing to release a new model. In order for the

manager at the production facility to calculate the possible ways that a car can
be put together, he will need to use a branch of mathematics called combination
rics. Combinatorics uses mathematical operations known as permutations and
combinations to calculate arrangement of things.

Permutations are ordered arrangement of things. Because order is taken

into consideration, permutations that contain the same elements but in different
orders are considered to be distinct. When a permutation contains only some of
the elements in a given set, it is called an r = permutation. The notation for a
permutation of r things from a set of n objects is P(n,r).

Combinations are unordered sets of elements. A combination is taken

from a set of distinct elements and can have anay number of those elements in
it. For this reason, combinations are also referred to as r-combinations. Because
order is not considered for combinations, calculating them is not as simple.
Combination as the question “How many sets of size r can be made when
picking from a set of size nn?”

Combinations also have a rotation ; C (c,r) and a theorem that helps to

compute C(n,r). The difference between a permutation and a combination is
that a permutation recognizes different orderings as distinct. It is possible to
have permutations and combinations with repetition.
 OBJECTIVES

The main objectives of doing this project are:-

 To understand the basic concepts of permutations and combinations.

 The derivation of the formulas
 To understand the proofs of different theorems based on this topic.
 To understand the application of permutation and combinations.
 To help students enable to apply the knowledge in practical life
 The importance of the applications of permutations and in daily life to
make thing more easier.

HYPOTHESIS
 I assume that this project done by me on the topic permutations and
combinations will help the students to understand the basic theories and the
different equations as well as its applications in various fields. Also I hope the
students will be able to use and apply the concepts of permutations and
combination for the development of themselves and for the society.

This could also enable the students to improve their problem solving
abilities as well as the critical thinking and cognitive powers.

METHODS AND PROCEDURE

Permutations
 A permutation of a set of elements is an arrangements of (all or part) the
elements in some order.

For example, the different permutations of the set {a,b,c} of three letters,
2 taken a time are (a,b), (a,c), (b,a), (b,c), (c,a), (c,b).

The different permutations of the same set {a,b,c} where all the letters
are taken at a time is:

(a,b,c), (a,c,b), (b,a,c), (b,c,a), (c,a,b), (c,b,c).

In general, the number of ways of arranging n elements taken r at a time

(where rn) is called the number of permutations of n things taken r at a time
and is represented symbolically by,

Npr or P(n,r) or Pn, r or nPr or n®

The number of permutations of n things taken all at a time is

= n(n-1)(n-2) [n-(n-1]

= n(n-1) (n-2)……………1= n!

(n! denoted the product of first n natural numbers)

Now consider the example

Suppose pooka has 5 distinct books on rates but she has room only for 3
books on the shelf. In this case, we have the following possibilities.

1st Place : Any of the five books

2nd Place: Any of the remaining four books
3rd Place: Any of the remaining three books
Using the product rule we multiply these three numbers together to obtain that
there are 5.4.3=60

Ways to arrange the books

As given in the above example, sometimes, we are interest in ordering a
subset of a collection of elements rather than the entire collection. For instance,
in the above illustration, pooja was interested to choose (and order) 3 books out
of 5 distinct books. In general we shall be interested in choosing and arranging
r elements out of a collection of n elements. We call such an arrangements a
permutation of n elements taken r at a time.

Permutation when all the objects are distinct

Theorem: The number of permutations or n distinct elements taken r(1rn) at
a time. The following result gives us the number of ways of arranging n distinct
elements taken r at a time.

The number of permutations of n distinct elements taken r (1rn) at a time is

Proof
For the r positions, …. Have the following possibilities.

1st position : Any of the n elements

2nd position : Any of the remaining (n-1) elements
3rd position : Any of the remaining (n-2) elements
4th position : Any of the remaining (n-3) elements

…..rth position : Any of the remaining (n-r+1) elements.

Using the product rule, we multiply these numbers to obtain, npr, the number
of ways of arranging n elements taken r at a time is

Factorial Notation

In this section we introduce a very useful rotation, called the factorial

rotation. This rotation is very convenient for representing the product of n
natural numbers
1,2,3…..n

Definition
If ‘n’ is a natural number, then n factorial denoted by n1 is defined to be the
product of 1 2 3 (n-1)n
Ie, n! = 1 23 (n-1)n
As a special case, we define zero factorial to be 0!=1

1! =1
2! = 1.2 = 2
3! = 1.2.3=6
4! = 1.2.3.4 =24
5!= 1.2.3.4.5=120
6! = 1.2.3.4.5.6=720

We can also define n! recursively as follows :

O! = 1 and n! = n(n-1) 1 for n1
Thus 7! – 7(6!) = 7(720) = 5040
And 8! =8(7!) = 8 (5040) = 40320

Example
i. Compute 4! + 3! Is 4! +3! = 7!?

ii. Evaluate

Solution
i. We have 4!+3! = 24+6=30. Also 7!=7(6!)
= 7.6.5!
= 7.6.5.4!
=7.6.5. (24)
= 5040

Thereofr, 4!+3! 7!
ii (a) when n=5, r=2, then

b) When n=6, r=3 then

Derivation of the formula for npr

Theorem
The number of permutations of n distinct elements is n!

Proof
We can use the product rue as follows
1st Position : Any of the n elements
2nd Position : Any of the remaining (n-1) elements
3rd Positions : Any of the remaining (n-2) elements
4th Position : Any of the remaining (n-3) elements

.
.
.
.
(n-1)th position : Any of the remaining two elements
nth position : The one remaining elements
by multiplying these n numbers together, we find the number of distinct
permutations to be we now multiply and divide the rights hand side by (n-r)! to
obtain.

Using the recurrence relation n!=n (n-1)!

Repeatedly I we obtain n(n-1) (n-2)…..(n-r+1) (n-r)! = n!

Thus

Permutation when all the objects are not distinct objects

Theorem
The number of permutations of n objects, where p objects are of the same kind

and all the rest are different = . In fact we have mere general theorem.
Theorem
The number a permutations of n objects, where p1 objects are of one kind, P2
are of second kind……. Pk are of Kth kind and the rest, if any, are of different

kind is

Example
Find the no.of permutations by using the letters of the word EVERONN.

Solution:
In the word of EVERONN,
Number of letters in the word EVERONN = 7
E occurs 2 times, N occurs 2 times

No.of permutations =

Combinations
A combination is a grouping or selection of all or part of a number of things
without reference to the arrangement of the things selected.

Thus the combination of the three letters a,b,c take two at a time are ab, ac, bc.
Note that ab and ba are one combination but two permutations of the letter a,b.
In a combination, thus ordering of selected object is not necessary. Usually the
number of permutations exceeds the number of combinations.

A set of r ( n) objects, chosen from a given set of n distinct objects without

regard to the order in which they are chosen, is called the combination of n
distinct objects taken r at a time. The symbol 1 ncr denotes the number of
combinations of n things taken r at a time. It is customary to dente ncr
alternatives by

As an illustration, let us list all the combination of 5 elements taken 2 at a time.

Let the set of 5 elements bc {1,2,3,4,5}.

The list of combinations are

{1,2}, {1,3}, {1,4} {1,5}, {2,3}
{2,4}, {2,5}, {3,4}, {3,5},{4,5}

Theorems

Theorem
The number of combinations of n distinct things taken, The number of

combinations of n distinct things taken, at a time is

Proof
Let the number of combinations on n things taken r at a time be denoted by x.
take one of these combinations. It contains r things which can be arranged
among themselves in r! ways. Therefore, the combination gives rise for
permutations.

x combinations will give rise to x (r!) permutation. Also the number of

permutations of n things taken r at a time is nPr
Thus

n
Pr = x(r!)

=
n
Pr =

Therefore, nPr=

Remark
The number of ways of selecting no object out of n distinct objects is
clearly one, as we do not have to do anything in this case.. nc0=1

This could have been derived directly from the formula for we have
Theorem
n! n!
n
0   1
o!( n  o)! 1.n!

Proof

 r    r 1

n 1 n!
 
r!( n  r ) (r  1)!( n  r  1)!

n! n!
 
r ( r  1)!( n  r )! ( r  1)!( n  r  1)(n  r )!

n! 1 1 
  
(r  1)!( n  r )  r n  r  1

n!  n  r 1 r 
   
(r  1)(n  r )!  r (n  r  ) 

(n  1)!

r!( n  1  r )!

 n  1 r

Examples

 Evaluate
i10 4

Solution
 10!
i10  4 
4!(10  4)!

10!
4!6!
10 x9 x8 x7 x6!
  210
4 x3 x 2 x1x6!

 if
n
10  n 14 find
n
 20 and 25  n
Solution

n 10  n 14 (given)

10+14 = n or n =24

24! 24 x 23 x 22 x 21x 20!

Thus n  20   20  
24

20!4! ( 20!)( 4 x3 x 2 x1)

 23x 22 x 21  10626

and 25 n  25  24  1  25
25


 if 18  r  18  r 2 find 5
Solution

18  r 18  r  2  r  r  2  18 or r 8
8!
Thus  5  8 5 
r

5!3!
8 x 7 x 6 x5!
5!(3 x 2 x1)
= 56
 APPLICATIONS OF PERMUTATIONS & COMBINATIONS

The principles theories of permutations and combination in mathematics

are stated. These principles / theories are applied in various areas. The
allocation of telephone / fax numbers from country code to actual telephone /
fax number for home or business. How this can help improve the present world
telecommunications system is demonstrated below.

Every person living on earth, in developed, underdeveloped and

undeveloped countries desover to have a telephone because of its necessity. On
would then ask; is it possible to assign telephone numbers to every person
living on earth? The answer to this question is “yes” how can this be proved.

The Telephone Numbering System

The allocation of telephone numbers primarly starts with the

international telecommunications uunion (ITU). The ITY determined and
assigns telephone country codes to all countries in the world. Since this task is
regulated and controlled, the allocation of those numbers must be in specific
order. Usually these numbers range from 1 to 3 digits.

Next to country codes are city codes. City codes are usually assigned by
the ministry of telecommunications of each country. Usually these range from 1
to 3 digits aswell. Next in the series of numbers, is usually the telephone
numbers themselves; a set of numbers that can go up to 7 digits . hence,
generally a telephone number system appears as follows:-

(a) The allocation of country telephone codes

The allocation of country telephone codes must be in specific order. The
emphasis on this arrangement / allocation is in the word “order”. For
this reason, this implies the principles of permutation in mathematics.
The allocation can be effectively carried out by posing the following
mathematics question. In how many ways can 3 digits be arranged from
a group of 10, in particular orders? Answers to this question is provided
by the principle of permutation. It should be understood that one is free
to choose 3 digits from the decimal numbering system (0…….9), in
particular orders. Hence the answer to that question is 10p3, which is

10! 10!
10 P3    10 x9 x8  720....( 2)
(10  3)! 7!

This means that there are 720 ways to arrange 3 digits from a group of 10
digits, in particular orders. There are 273 countries in world today. Using the
result from equation (2) all the 273 countries could easily be assigned
telephone codes

(b) The allocation of city / area codes

Telephone city / area codes of all countries ministry of telecommunications
usually, these digits are 3, selected form the decimal number system, 0….9
grouping of these 3 digits must also be in a particular order. What this implies
is that the grouping could be efficiently implemented using the principle of
permutation in mathematics. This is represented mathematically as 10P3

10!
10 P3   10 x9 x8  720....(3)
(10  3)!

What this implies is that 720 combinations could be obtained from 3 digit
arrangements from 10 digits (0.....9)
 (c) The principle for efficient allocation of phone numbers is technically
different from those of country and city / area codes. This usually
constitutes 7 digits and are the actual telephone numbers which provide
telecommunications services for homes nad business. This principle is
equally applicable to all types of communication lines. To have a wider
latitude of numbers, the 7 digits could be broken into 2 segments, of 3
and 4 digits as follows.

XXX XXXX ----------------(4)

The arrangement here follows no particular order. Hence the principle of

“combination” in mathematics applied. By this application the number of
arrangements for the first 3 digits, combined from a group of 10 digits (0…9)
are obtained from the following expression.

10! 10! 10 x9 x8
10C3     120    (5)
(3!)(10  3)! 3! x7! 3x 2

From the result in equation (5), these would give 120 combinations of 3 digits,
choose from 10 digits (0….9). The last four digits would similarly be arranged
using the same principle of “combination”. This would be as follows:

10! 10! 10 x9 x8 x 7
10C4     120    (6)
( 4!)(10  4)! 4! x6! 4 x3 x 2

There would hence be 210 arrangements of 4 digits, chosen from 10 digits 0…

9

4. Technical Interpretations of the mathematics results

The mathematical results obtained could technically and practically, be

implemented as illustrated in the following chart.

The explanation of the illustration in figure 1 is that each number allocation at point A
will have 720 possible combinations at point B. Each allocation at point B will have
720 possible combinations at point C. Each allocation at point c will have 120
possible combinations at point D, while each allocation point D would finally have
200 possible combinations. These allocations and possible combinations of numbers
would give.

720 x 720 x120 x 210  13,063,680,000    (7)

This very principle of allocation of communication lines covers all types of

telephones (including cellular telephone) fax and beeper lines all over the word.

The present world population is 6400,000,000. The result obtained from the
study, equation (7) is more than twice the present world population. What this implies
is that it is possible for every person on earth to be assigned both telephone and far
lines with case, as long as there are voice and data exchange equipment to handle the
distribution, coding and de-coding of information.

Usage of permutation applications in switching network

The usage of permutation methods is applied in statistics is increasing day by day.
Permutations are also used to define switching networks in computer networking and
parallel processing. Permutation is also used in a variety of cryptographic algorithms.
Some other areas where applications of permutations and combination used are:

Computer architecture
Design of computer chips involves consideration of possible permutations of
input to output pins. Field programmable inter connection chips provide user
prrgrammable inter connection for a desired permutation. Arrangement of logic gates
is a basic element for computer architecture design. Computational molecular biology.

This field involves many types of combinatorial and sequency problems such
a atoms, molecules, DNAs, genes and proteins. Ohe dimensional sequencing
problems are essentially permutation problems under certain constraints.

Languages
 Both natural and computer languages are closely related to combinatorics.
This is because the components of these languages, such as sentences, paragraphs,
programs and blocks, are arrangement of smaller elements, such as words, characters
and atoms. For example, a string searching algorithm may rely on combinatorics of
words and characters.
Scientific discovery

For certain types of knowledge discovery problems / generation of

combinatorial sequences may become necessary in the process of yiebling candidate
solutions. For example, in scientific discovery, we may want to have a sequence of
plausible/chemical/biological reactions and their formations. Certain areas of
mathematics, such as gra[h theory and number theory, may generate combinatorial
sequences as candidate solutions.

Stimulations

Permutations and combinations can be employed for stimulations in many

areas permutations representing various gemtype phenotype associations are
employed in genetics stimulations. Other areas that employ permutations and
combinations for stimulations include networks, gyptography, data bases and or.

Homeland securities

This is a very specialized problem domain that has become a major national
challenge after 9/11. To confront this challenge, many intelligent computing
techniques have been applied, including intelligent pattern analyses of human faces,
X-ray images, chemical component, data from a distributed network of wireless
sensors etc. Natural language processing and data mining techniques have been
applied to sift through and monitor the tremendous.

Accumulation of electronic communication data

 Since combinatorics are extensively applied to these intelligent compting
techniques, there is a wide spectrum of potentials for the national security issue. Some
specific examples may include string searching algorithms and their performance
analysis in communication data, pre and post analysis of combinatorial sequence of
information elements, and combinatorial pattern matching.

Some real life examples

Case 1 : you have to go for a marriage function. And you want to perfect combination
of shirt and pant. Suppose you have 2 shirts (white & blue) and 2 pants (black and
brown). So how many combinations do you have?

White Black, White Brown, Blue Black, Blue Brown

ie 2x2 = 4 combinations are available.

Case 2 : you want to have a fruity breakfast this morning. You have apple, banana
and mango in your freeze. Your mam dosen’t care it you maintain the order Apple,
Banana, Mango or Apple, Mango, Banana or ‘Banana, Mango, Apple for your
breakfast. That means you can have your breakfast in any combination of fruits. This
is combination problem.

Case 3 : you want to all your friend. You have to dial her number in order otherwise a
wrong person may pick up. Order of 10 digits matter here like 989…… This is
permutation problem,
Case 4 : your class teacher came to your class and started taking attendance. He/she
can start either from roll call, or from the last roll call or may call any roll number in
between at first. Order of roll calls doesn’t matter here. This is a combination
problem.

Case 5 : Your dad wants you to open your facebook account infront of him, and your
password is : IAM@MAN.

You can’t open your account with wrong password MAN@IAM. That means the
password order is taken into account. If order does matter it is a problem of
permutation.

Case 6 : you and your friends go for a movie you can think of arranging your group
into 5 seats such that you are always with one specific friend (or not besides one
specific friend) Try permutations here.

Case 7 : You an your friends want to commute from your residential area to some
other place. There is a group of 6 but the auto rickshaw can carry only 5. Select any 5
and also arrange them according to their preferences. Go for combinations and them
permutation
 FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION

By doing this project on the topic application of permutations and

combinations, I could find out more and wide range of application of the topic
in various fields which were unknown for me before.

Permutations and combination have application in various areas from

daily life to information and communication technology. Most of the people are
unware of its importance or not making use of it due to the lack of knowledge
in the topic. As this project helped me in widening my knowledge regarding the
topic, I could came to the conclusion that it also help the students in improving
their knowledge and help them apply for the progressive developed of the
society.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Mathematics Textbook
Class XI - CBSE
2. Mathematics Textbook
Class XI – ICSE

Websites
 Wikipedia
 www.qoora.com
 www.gradestack.com
 www.researchgate.net
 www.blog,meroanswer.com
 APPENDIX

 Pencil
 Pen
 Scale
 Pictures
 Paper cuttings
 Rubber
 Sketch pens
 AVILA COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, EDAKOCHI
EDU 404.2
PRACTICAL

APPLICATIONS OF PERMUTATIONS AND

COMBINATIONS

Submitted to, Submitted by,

Dr.Elizabeth Thomas Lidhiya Raphael
B.Ed Mathematics
Semester – 4
Roll No : 4
Register No:160011003221
 INDEX

Sl.No Contents Page No

1. Abstract 1

2. Introduction 2

3. Objectives 3

4. Hypothesis 4

5. Methods and Procedure 5

6. Applications of Permutations & Combinations 15

7. Findings and Conclusion 22

8. Bibliography 23

Appendix 24