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Derangements

This document discusses derangements, which are permutations where no objects appear in their correct place. It provides a summation formula to calculate the number of derangements of an n-element tuple, denoted by !n. As an example, it calculates the probability that 4 cards placed randomly in 4 boxes do not end up in the box matching their label, which is 3/8. It concludes with two practice problems calculating similar probabilities for people drawing ID cards and coins.

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gauss202
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401 views

Derangements

This document discusses derangements, which are permutations where no objects appear in their correct place. It provides a summation formula to calculate the number of derangements of an n-element tuple, denoted by !n. As an example, it calculates the probability that 4 cards placed randomly in 4 boxes do not end up in the box matching their label, which is 3/8. It concludes with two practice problems calculating similar probabilities for people drawing ID cards and coins.

Uploaded by

gauss202
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Derangements

by Sean Soni

Concept
A derangement is a permutation of objects such that none of the objects appear in their correct place. For example, the derangements of the ordered
triple (1, 2, 3) would be the triples (2, 3, 1) and (3, 1, 2). Thus there are two
derangements of the triple above, (and two derangements of any 3-element
triple where all elements are distinct). The number of derangements of an
n-element n-tuple is denoted !n. But how do we find the number of derangements of an n-element ordered n-tuple? We could count and use casework,
or we could use the summation formula:

!n = n!

n
X
(1)k
k=0

k!

Application
Suppose that 4 cards labeled 1 to 4 are placed randomly into 4 boxes also
labeled 1 to 4, one card per box. What is the probability that no card gets
placed into a box having the same label as the card? (USC 1993)
We are looking for the number of derangements of 4 objects, over the total
possible number of arrangements of 4 objects. Thus we are looking for !4
4! .
Using our summmation from above,
4
X
(1)k
1 1 1 1
1
9
!4 = 4!
= 24( +
+ +
+ ) = 24( ) = 9 .
k!
1
1
2
6
24
24
k=0

And obviously, 4! = 24 .
So the desired probability is

9
=
24

3
8

Practice Problems
1. 5 people put their ID cards together and randomly shuffle them. Then
each person picks an ID card randomly from the pile. Whats the
probability that nobody gets their own ID?
2. If 6 people put 6 different coins in a pot, what is the probability that
each draws out a coin that is not his?
(Sources: Wolfram MathWorld; Art of Problem Solving)

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