Counting

Chapter 6

With Question/Answer Animations

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The Basics of Counting
Section 6.1
Basic Counting Principles: The Product
Rule
The Product Rule: A procedure can be broken down into a
sequence of two tasks. There are n1 ways to do the first task and
n2 ways to do the second task. Then there are n1∙n2 ways to do
the procedure.
In general, if a procedure can be broken into k tasks where 1st
task can be done in n1 ways, 2nd task can be done in n2 ways, …,
k-th task can be done in nk ways, then the whole procedure can
be done in n1∙n2 ∙ ∙ ∙ nk ways.

Example 4: How many bit strings of length seven are there?

Solution: Since each of the seven bits is either a 0 or a 1, the
answer is 2*2*2*2*2*2*2 = 27 = 128.
The Product Rule
Example 5: How many different license plates can be
made if each plate contains a sequence of three uppercase
English letters followed by three digits (e.g. DBC143)?
Solution: By the product rule,
there are 26 ∙ 26 ∙ 26 ∙ 10 ∙ 10 ∙ 10 = 17,576,000 different
possible license plates.
Exercise 3
A multiple-choice test contains 10 questions. There are four
possible answers for each question.
a) In how many ways can a student answer the questions
on the test if the student answers every question?
b) In how many ways can a student answer the questions
on the test if the student can leave answers blank?

Solution: (a) 410

(b) 510
Telephone Numbering Plan
Example 8: The North American numbering plan (NANP) specifies that a telephone number
consists of 10 digits, consisting of a three-digit area code, a three-digit office code, and a four-
digit station code. There are some restrictions on the digits.
Let X denote a digit from 0 through 9.
Let N denote a digit from 2 through 9.
Let Y denote a digit that is 0 or 1.
In the old plan (in use in the 1960s) the format was NYX-NNX-XXXX.
In the new plan, the format is NXX-NXX-XXXX.

How many different telephone numbers are possible under the old plan and the new plan?

Solution: Use the Product Rule.

There are 8 ∙2 ∙10 = 160 area codes with the format NYX.
There are 8 ∙10 ∙10 = 800 area codes with the format NXX.
There are 8 ∙8 ∙10 = 640 office codes with the format NNX.
There are 10 ∙10 ∙10 ∙10 = 10,000 station codes with the format XXXX.

Number of old plan telephone numbers: 160 ∙640 ∙10,000 = 1,024,000,000.

Number of new plan telephone numbers: 800 ∙800 ∙10,000 = 6,400,000,000.
Product Rule in Terms of Sets
If A1, A2, … , Am are finite sets, then the number of
elements in the Cartesian product of these sets is the
product of the number of elements of each set.
The task of choosing an element in the Cartesian
product A1 ⨉ A2 ⨉ ∙∙∙ ⨉ Am is done by choosing an
element in A1, an element in A2 , …, and an element
in Am.
By the product rule, it follows that:
|A1 ⨉ A2 ⨉ ∙∙∙ ⨉ Am |= |A1| ∙ |A2| ∙ ∙∙∙ ∙ |Am|.
Basic Counting Principles: The Sum Rule
The Sum Rule: If a task can be done either in one of n1 ways
or in one of n2, where none of the set of n1 ways is the same as
any of the n2 ways, then there are n1 + n2 ways to do the task.
Example 12: The mathematics department must choose
either a student or a faculty member as a representative for a
university committee. How many choices are there for this
representative if there are 37 members of the mathematics
faculty and 83 mathematics majors and no one is both a
faculty member and a student.
Solution: By the sum rule it follows that there are
37 + 83 = 120 possible ways to pick a representative.
The Sum Rule in terms of sets.
The sum rule can be phrased in terms of sets.
|A ∪ B|= |A| + |B| as long as A and B are disjoint
sets.
Or more generally,

|A1 ∪ A2 ∪ ∙∙∙ ∪ Am |= |A1| + |A2| + ∙∙∙ + |Am|

when Ai ∩ Aj = ∅ for all i, j.

The case where the sets have elements in common will

be discussed when we consider the subtraction rule.
Combining the Sum and Product Rule
Example: Suppose statement labels in a case-insensitive
programming language can be either a single letter or a
letter followed by a digit. Find the number of possible
labels.
Solution: There are two types of labels:
(i) Single letter labels: there are 26 such labels
(ii) Labels consisting of a letter followed by a digit:
By the product rule, there are 26*10 = 260 such labels.

By the sum rule, there are 26 + 260 = 286 possible labels.

Exercise 29
How many license plates can be made using either two
uppercase English letters followed by four digits or two
digits followed by four uppercase English letters?

Solution: There are 2 types of license plate numbers:

Type 1 (2 uppercase letters followed by 4 digits):
There are 26*26*10*10*10*10 = 6760000 such numbers
Type 2 (2 digits followed by 4 uppercase letters):
There are 10*10*26*26*26*26 = 45697600 such numbers
In total, there are 6760000 + 45697600 = 52457600 license plate
numbers.
Counting Passwords
 Combining the sum and product rule allows us to solve more complex problems.
Example 16: Each user on a computer system has a password, which is six to eight
characters long, where each character is an uppercase letter or a digit. Each password
must contain at least one digit. How many possible passwords are there?

Solution: Let P be the total number of passwords, and let P6, P7, and P8 be the
passwords of length 6, 7, and 8.
 By the sum rule P = P6 + P7 +P8.
 To find Pn, (n=6, 7, or 8), we find the number of n–length passwords composed of
letters and digits and then we subtract the number of n–length passwords
composed only of letters from that.
 number of n–length passwords composed of letters and digits = (26+10)n = 36n
 number of n–length passwords composed of only letters = 26n
 So Pn = 36n – 26n
P6 = 366 − 266 = 2,176,782,336 − 308,915,776 =1,867,866,560.
P7 = 367 − 267 = 78,364,164,096 − 8,031,810,176 = 70,332,353,920.
P8 = 368 − 268 = 2,821,109,907,456 − 208,827,064,576 =2,612,282,842,880.
Consequently, P = P + P +P = 2,684,483,063,360.
Exercise 15
How many strings are there of lowercase letters of
length four or less, not counting the empty string?
Solution: There are 4 types of strings:
Whose length = 1: there are 26 such strings
Whose length = 2: (do yourself)
Whose length = 3: (do yourself)
Whose length = 4: (do yourself)
In total, there are … strings
Basic Counting Principles: Subtraction Rule
Subtraction Rule: If a task can be done either in one of
n1 ways or in one of n2 ways, then the total number of
ways to do the task is n1 + n2 minus the number of ways
to do the task that are common to the two different ways.
Commonly known as, the principle of inclusion-exclusion:
Counting Bit Strings
Example 18: How many bit strings of length eight start
with a 1 or end with 00?
Solution: Use the subtraction rule.
Number of bit strings of length eight
that start with a 1 bit: 27 = 128
Number of bit strings of length eight
that end with bits 00: 26 = 64
Number of bit strings of length eight
that start with a 1 bit and end with bits 00 : 25 = 32
Hence, the number is 128 + 64 − 32 = 160.
Counting Applicants
Example 19: A company receives 350 applications for a job.
Suppose that 220 of these applicants majored in CSE, 147
majored in BBA, and 51 majored both in CSE and in BBA. How
many of them majored neither in CSE nor in BBA?
Solution: Let U = set of all applicants, A = set of CSE
applicants, and B = set of BBA applicants U
By the principle of exclusion-exclusion:
|A U B| = |A|+|B|-|A∩B|
= 220+147-51 = 316
No. of applicants who majored in neither
CSE nor BBA = |U-(A U B)| = 350-316 = 34
Basic Counting Principles: Division Rule
Division Rule: If a task can be done in n ways but among them each d ways
are identical to each other, then there are n/d distinct ways to do that task.

Example 20: How many ways are there to seat four people around a circular
table, where two seatings are considered the same when each person has the
same left and right neighbor?
Explanation: Four persons who are numbered from 1 to 4, can sit around a
circular table in 4 ways which are alike to each other: 1234 , 4123 , 3412, 2341.
(Why are they alike?)
Basic Counting Principles: Division Rule
Solution: Consider 4 seats tagged as a,b,c,d. There are 4 ways to select the
person for seat a, 3 ways for seat b, and 2 ways for seat c, and 1 way for seat
d. Thus there are 4*3*2*1 = 4! = 24 ways to order 4 people in a linear
seating arrangement.
a

d b
a b c d
c
But ours is a circular seating arrangement. So among these
24 linear orders some will be alike. Since by rotating (either
clockwise or anti-clockwise) a seating arrangement we can get
3 other seatings which are alike the first one (since two seatings
are the same when each person has the same left and right
neighbors). So each 4 linear orders out of 24 are identical to
each other. Therefore, by the division rule, there are 24/4 = 6
different seatings around the table.
 Basic Counting Principles: Division Rule
Example: How many ways are there to seat three people around a circular
table, where two seatings are considered the same when each person has
the same left and right neighbor?
Solution: Suppose the seats are numbered from 1 to 3. There are 3 ways
to select the person for seat 1, two ways for seat 2, and one way for seat 3.
Thus there are 3*2*1 = 3! = 6 ways to order 3 people in a linear seating
arrangement.
But ours is a circular seating arrangement. So among these 6 linear
orders some will be alike. Because by rotating a seating arrangement
(either clockwise or anti-clockwise) we can get two other seatings which
are alike the first one (since two seatings are the same when each person
has the same left and right neighbors). So there are each 3 linear orders
out of 6 are identical to each other. Therefore, by the division rule, there
are 6/3 = 2 different seatings around the table.
Exercise 44
Example: How many ways are there to seat four of a
group of ten people around a circular table where two
seatings are considered the same when everyone has the
same left and right neighbors?
Solution: 10P4/4 = 1260 ways
 Tree Diagrams
 Tree Diagrams: We can solve many counting problems through the use of
tree diagrams, where a branch represents a possible choice and the leaves
represent possible outcomes.
 Example 23: Some T-shirts of store come in five different sizes: S,M,L,XL, and
XXL. Each size comes in four colors (white, red, green, and black), except XL,
which comes only in red, green, and black, and XXL, which comes only in
green and black. What is the minimum number of shirts that the campus book
store needs to stock to have one of each size and color available?
 Solution: Draw the tree diagram; then count the no. of leaves.
The store must stock 17 T-shirts.
Tree Diagrams
 Example 21: How many bit strings of length four do not have two
consecutive 1s?
Solution: Draw the tree diagram; then count the no. of leaves.
There are 8 such bit strings.
Permutations and
Combinations
Section 6.3
Permutations
Definition: A permutation of a set of distinct objects is an
ordered arrangement of these objects without repetition.
An ordered arrangement of r elements of a set is called an
r-permuation.
Example: Let S = {1,2,3}.
The ordered arrangement (3,1,2) is a 3-permutation of S.
The ordered arrangement (3,2) is a 2-permutation of S.
The number of r-permuatations of a set with n elements
is denoted by P(n,r).
The 2-permutations of S = {1,2,3} are (1,2); (1,3); (2,1);
(2,3); (3,1); and (3,2). Hence, P(3,2) = 6.
A Formula for the Number of 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: Use the product rule. The first element can be chosen in n
ways. The second in n − 1 ways, and so on until there are (n
− ( r − 1)) ways to choose the last element.
Note that P(n,0) = 1, since there is only one way to order zero
elements.
Corollary 1: If n and r are integers with 1 ≤ r ≤ n, then
Solving Counting Problems by Counting
Permutations
Example 4: How many ways are there to select a first-
prize winner, a second prize winner, and a third-prize
winner from 100 different people who have entered a
contest?

Solution:
P(100,3) = 100 ∙ 99 ∙ 98 = 970,200

1st 2nd 3rd

Solving Counting Problems by Counting
Permutations
Example 1: In how many ways can we select three
students from a group of five students to stand in line
for a picture? In how many ways can we arrange all five
of these students in a line for a picture?

Solution:
(i) P(5,3) = 5*4*3 = 60
(ii) P(5,5) = 5! = 120
Solving Counting Problems by Counting
Permutations (continued)
Example 6: Suppose that a saleswoman has to visit eight
different cities. She must begin her trip in a specified city,
but she can visit the other seven cities in any order she
wishes. How many possible orders can the saleswoman
use when visiting these cities?

Solution: The first city is specific, and the rest 7 are

ordered arbitrarily. Hence the no. of possible orders are:
P(7,7) = 7! = 7 ∙ 6 ∙ 5 ∙ 4 ∙ 3 ∙ 2 ∙ 1 = 5040
If she wants to find the tour with the shortest path that
visits all the cities, she must consider 5040 paths!
Solving Counting Problems by Counting
Permutations (continued)
Example 7: How many permutations of the letters
ABCDEFGH contain the string ABC ?

Solution: We solve this problem by counting the

permutations of six objects, ABC, D, E, F, G, and H.

6! = 6 ∙ 5 ∙ 4 ∙ 3 ∙ 2 ∙ 1 = 720
Combinations
Definition: An r-combination of elements of a set is an
unordered selection of r elements from the set. Thus, an
r-combination is simply a subset of the set with r elements.
The number of r-combinations of a set with n distinct
elements is denoted by C(n, r). The notation is also used
and is called a binomial coefficient.
Example: Let S be the set {a, b, c, d}. Then {a, c, d} is a 3-
combination from S. It is the same as {d, c, a} since the order
listed does not matter.
C(4,2) = 6 because the 2-combinations of S= {a, b, c, d} are
the six subsets of S: {a, b}, {a, c}, {a, d}, {b, c}, {b, d}, and {c, d}.
Combinations
Theorem 2: The number of r-combinations of a set
with n elements, where n ≥ r ≥ 0, equals

Proof: By the product rule P(n, r) = C(n,r) ∙ P(r,r).

Therefore,
Combinations
Example 11: How many poker hands of five cards can be dealt
from a standard deck of 52 cards? Also, how many ways are
there to select 47 cards from a deck of 52 cards?
Solution: Since the order in which the cards are dealt does
not matter, the number of five card hands is:

The different ways to select 47 cards from 52 is

This is a special case of a general result. →

Combinations
Corollary 2: Let n and r be nonnegative integers with
r ≤ n. Then C(n, r) = C(n, n − r).
Proof: From Theorem 2, it follows that

and

Hence, C(n, r) = C(n, n − r).

Combinations
Example 12: How many ways are there to select five players
from a 10-member tennis team to make a trip to a match at
another school.
Solution: By Theorem 2, the number of combinations is

Example 13: A group of 30 people have been trained as

astronauts to go on the first mission to Mars. How many ways
are there to select a crew of six people to go on this mission?
Solution: By Theorem 2, the number of possible crews is
Exercise 27 (usage of C vs. P)
A club has 25 members.
a) How many ways are there to choose four members
of the club to serve on an executive committee?
b) How many ways are there to choose a president,
vice president, secretary, and treasurer of the club,
where no person can hold more than one office?

Solution:
a) C(25, 4) = 25*24*23*22/4! = 12,650
b) P(25, 4) = 25*24*23*22 = 303,600
Exercise 31
The English alphabet contains 21 consonants and five
vowels. How many strings of six lowercase letters of the English
alphabet contain
a) exactly one vowel?
b) exactly two vowels?
c) at least one vowel?
d) at least two vowels?
Solution:
a) C(6,1)*51*215
b) C(6,2)*52*214
c) ?
d) ?
The Pigeonhole Principle
Section 6.2
The Pigeonhole Principle
If a flock of 13 pigeons roosts in a set of 12 pigeonholes, one of the
pigeonholes must have more than 1 pigeon.

Pigeonhole Principle: If k is a positive integer and k + 1 objects are

placed into k boxes, then at least one box contains two or more objects.
Proof: We use a proof by contradiction. Suppose none of the k boxes has
more than one object, i.e., each of the k boxes contains ≤ 1 object. Then
the total number of objects in those boxes would be at most k. This
contradicts the statement that we have placed k + 1 objects in those boxes.
The Pigeonhole Principle
Corollary 1: A function f from a set with k + 1
elements to a set with k elements is not one-to-one.
Proof: Use the pigeonhole principle.
Create a box for each element y in the codomain of f .
In the box for y, put all of the elements x from the
domain such that f(x) = y.
Because there are k + 1 elements and only k boxes, at
least one box has two or more elements.
Hence, f can’t be one-to-one.
Pigeonhole Principle
Example: Among any group of 367 people, there must
be at least two with the same birthday, because there
are only 366 possible birthdays.
 The Generalized Pigeonhole Principle
The Generalized Pigeonhole Principle: If N objects are placed into
k boxes, then there is at least one box containing at least ⌈N/k⌉ objects.
Proof (by contradiction): Suppose it is possible to place N objects into
k boxes without ever putting ≥ ⌈N/k⌉ objects into any box, i.e., it is
possible to place N objects into k boxes by putting ≤ ⌈N/k⌉ − 1 objects
in each box. Since each box contains ≤ ⌈N/k⌉ − 1 objects, all k boxes
contain ≤ k(⌈N/k⌉ − 1) objects
So maximum number of
objects in those boxes ≤
( since ⌈N/k⌉ < N/k + 1)

i.e., max. no. of objects that can be placed in those boxes < N. This
contradicts our premise that N objects can be placed in those k boxes.

Example: Among 100 people there are at least ⌈100/12⌉ = 9 who were
The Generalized Pigeonhole Principle
Example: a) How many cards must be selected from a standard deck of
52 cards to guarantee that at least three cards of the same suit are chosen?
b) How many must be selected to guarantee that at least three hearts are
selected?
Solution: a) We assume four boxes; one for each suit. Using the
generalized pigeonhole principle, at least one box contains at least ⌈N/4⌉
cards. At least three cards of one suit are selected if ⌈N/4⌉ ≥3. The smallest
integer N such that ⌈N/4⌉ ≥3 is N = (3-1) ∙ 4 + 1 = 9.
b) A deck contains 13 hearts and 39 cards which are not hearts. So, if we
select 39 cards, there is a possibility that none of them are hearts. However,
when we select 42 cards, we must have at least three hearts among them.
(Note that the generalized pigeonhole principle is not used here.)
Exercise 3 (modified)
A drawer contains a dozen brown socks and a dozen black socks.
A man takes socks out at random in the dark.
a) How many socks must he take out to be sure that he has at
least five socks of the same color?
b) How many socks must he take out to be sure that he has at
least five black socks?
Solution: a) We assume two boxes; one for each color. Using the
generalized pigeonhole principle, at least one box contains at
least ⌈N/2⌉ socks. At least five socks of same color are selected if
⌈N/2⌉ ≥ 5. The smallest integer N such that ⌈N/2⌉ ≥ 5 is
N = (5-1) ∙ 2 + 1 = 9
b) The drawer contains 12 brown and 12 black socks. So, if we
select 12+5=17 socks, we may have at most 12 brown socks
along with at least five black socks.