Counting

Chapter 5
Chapter Summary
The Basics of Counting
The Pigeonhole Principle
Permutations and Combinations
Binomial Coefficients and Identities
Generalized Permutations and Combinations
The Basics of Counting
Section 5.1
Section Summary
The Product Rule
The Sum Rule
The Subtraction Rule
Examples
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 (first and
second task).

Example: 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 27 = 128.
The Product Rule
Example: How many different license plates can be
made if each plate contains a sequence of three
uppercase English letters followed by three digits?
Solution: By the product rule,
there are 26 ∙ 26 ∙ 26 ∙ 10 ∙ 10 ∙ 10 = 17,576,000
different possible license plates.
Example 1: Counting Functions
Question: How many functions are there from a set with m elements
to a set with n elements?
Solution: Since a function represents a choice of one of the n elements
of the codomain for each of the m elements in the domain, the product
rule tells us that there are n ∙ n ∙ ∙ ∙ n = nm such functions.

Counting One-to-One Functions: How many one-to-one functions

are there from a set with m elements to one with n elements (n is
greater than m)?
Solution: Suppose the elements in the domain are a1, a2,…,
am. There are n ways to choose the value of a1 and n−1 ways to choose
a2, etc. The product rule tells us that there are n(n−1)
(n−2)∙∙∙(n−m +1) such functions.
Example 2: Telephone Numbering Plan
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-
XXX.
 In the new plan, the format is NXX-NXX-XXX.

Question: How many different telephone numbers are

possible under the old plan and the new plan?
Telephone Numbering Plan (cont.)
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.
Example 3: Counting Subsets of a Finite Set
Question: Use the product rule to show that the number of
different subsets of a finite set S is 2|S|.
Solution:
List the elements of S in an arbitrary order.
There is a one-to-one correspondence between subsets of S and
bit strings of length |S|:
When the ith element is in the subset, the bit string has a 1 in
the
ith position and a 0 otherwise.
By the product rule, there are 2|S| such bit strings, and therefore
2|S| subsets.
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:

|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: 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
later.
Combining the Sum and Product Rule
Example 1: Suppose statement labels in a
programming language can be either a single letter or a
letter followed by a digit. Find the number of possible
labels.
Solution:
By the product rule, there are 26 ∙ 10 = 260 labels that
consist of a letter followed by a digit.
By the sum rule, the number of possible labels is
26 + 260 = 286
Combining the Sum and Product Rule
Example 2 (counting passwords): 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.
Solution (cont.)
 To find each of P6, P7, and P8 , we find the number of passwords of
the specified length composed of letters and digits and subtract the
number composed only of letters. We find that:

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 = P6 + P7 +P8 = 2,684,483,063,360.

Combining the Sum and Product Rule
Example 3 (Internet addresses)
Version 4 of the Internet Protocol (IPv4) uses 32 bits.
Internet Addresses (cont.)
 Class A Addresses: used for the largest networks, a 0, followed by
a 7-bit netid and a 24-bit hostid.
 Class B Addresses: used for the medium-sized networks, a
10,followed by a 14-bit netid and a 16-bit hostid.
 Class C Addresses: used for the smallest networks, a 110,
followed by a 21-bit netid and a 8-bit hostid.
 Neither Class D nor Class E addresses are assigned as the address of a
computer on the internet. Only Classes A, B, and C are available.
 1111111 is not available as the netid of a Class A network.
 Hostids consisting of all 0s and all 1s are not available in any
network.
 Question: How many different IPv4 addresses are available for
computers on the internet?
Internet Addresses (cont.)
Solution: Let x be the number of available addresses, and let xA, xB,
and xC denote the number of addresses for the respective classes.
 To find, xA: 27 − 1 = 127 netids. 224 − 2 = 16,777,214 hostids.

xA = 127∙ 16,777,214 = 2,130,706,178.

 To find, xB: 214 = 16,384 netids. 216 − 2 = 16,534 hostids.

xB = 16,384 ∙ 16, 534 = 1,073,709,056.

 To find, xC: 221 = 2,097,152 netids. 28 − 2 = 254 hostids.

xC = 2,097,152 ∙ 254 = 532,676,608.

 Hence, the total number of available IPv4 addresses is
x = xA + xB + xC
= 2,130,706,178 + 1,073,709,056
Not Enough+Today
532,676,608
!!
= 3, 737,091,842. The newer IPv6 protocol solves the problem
of too few addresses.
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.
Also known as, the principle of inclusion-exclusion:
Counting Bit Strings
Example: How many bit strings of length eight either
start with a 1 bit or end with the two bits 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.
Glossary
The Basics of Counting: Các nguyên lý đếm cơ bản
The Product Rule: Quy tắc nhân
The Sum Rule: Quy tắc cộng
The Subtraction Rule: Quy tắc trừ
Principle of inclusion-exclusion: Nguyên lý bù trừ
One-to-one correspondence: Tương ứng một-một