assignment 3

course mth 152

Question: `q001.

As we have seen if we choose, say, 3 objects out of 10 distinct objects the number of possible results depends on whether order matters or not.

For the present example if order does matter there are 10 choices for the first selection, 9 for the second and 8 for the third, giving us 10 * 9 * 8 possibilities.

However if order does not matter then whatever three objects are chosen, they could have been chosen in 3 * 2 * 1 = 6 different orders. This results in only 1/6 as many possibilities, or 10 * 9 * 8 / 6 possible outcomes.

We usually write this number as 10 * 9 * 8 / (3 * 2 * 1) in order to remind us that there are 10 * 9 * 8 ordered outcomes, but 3 * 2 * 1 orders in which any three objects can be chosen.

If we were to choose 4 objects out of 12,

How many possible outcomes would there be if the objects were chosen in order?

How many possible outcomes would there be if the order of the objects did not matter?

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Your solution: 12*11*10*9=11,880 possibilities in order and , 12*11*10*9/4*3*2*1=12*11*10*9/24= 495 possibilities unordered.

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Given Solution:

When choosing 4 objects out of 12, there are 12 choices for the first, 11 choices for the second, 10 choices for the third and 9 choices for the fourth object. If the order matters there are therefore 12 * 11 * 10 * 9 possible outcomes.

If the order doesn't matter, then we have to ask in how many different orders any given collection of 4 objects could be chosen. Given any 4 objects, there are 4 choices for the first, 3 choices for the second, 2 choices for the third and 1 choice for the fourth. There are thus 4 * 3 * 2 * 1 orders in which a given set of 4 objects could be chosen.

We therefore have 12 * 11 * 10 * 9 / ( 4 * 3 * 2 * 1) possible outcomes when order doesn't matter.

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Question:

`q002. If order does not matter, then how many ways are there to choose 5 members of a team from 23 potential players?

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Your solution: 23*22*21*20*19/5*4*3*2*1= 4037880/120=33,649 possibilities.

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Given Solution:

If order did matter then there would be 23 * 22 * 21 * 20 * 19 ways choose the five members. However order does not matter, so we must divide this number by the 5 * 4 * 3 * 2 * 1 ways in which any given set of five individuals can be chosen.

We therefore have 23 * 22 * 21 * 20 * 19 / ( 5 * 4 * 3 * 2 * 1) possible 5-member teams.

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Question:

`q003. In how many ways can we line up 5 different books on a shelf?

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Your solution: 5*4*3*2*1=120 possibilities.

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Given Solution:

It should be clear that there are 5 * 4 * 3 * 2 * 1 ways, since there are 5 choices for the first book, 4 for the second, etc.. If we multiply these numbers out we get 5 * 4 * 3 * 2 * 1 = 120.

It might be a little bit surprising that there should be 120 ways to order only 5 objects. It’s probably even more surprising that if we double the number of objects to 10, there are over 3 million ways to order them (you should be able to verify this easily enough).

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Question:

`q004. The expression 5 * 4 * 3 * 2 * 1 is often written as 5 ! , read 'five factorial'. More generally if n stands for any number, then n ! stands for the number of ways in which n distinct objects could be lined up.

Find 6 ! , 7 ! and 10 ! .

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Your solution:

6*5*4*3*2*1=720

7*6*5*4*3*2*1= 5040

10*9*8*7*6*5*4*3*2*1= 3,628,800

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Given Solution:

6 ! = 6 * 5 * 4 * 3 * 2 * 1 = 720.

7 ! = 7 * 6 * 5 * 4 * 3 * 2 * 1 = 5040.

10 ! = 3,628,800.

These numbers grow at an astonishing rate. The last result here shows is that there are over 3 million ways to arrange 10 people in a line. The rapid growth of these results like in part explain the use of the ! symbol (the exclamation point) to designate factorials.

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Question:

`q005. What do we get if we simplify the expression (10 ! / 6 !) ?

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Your solution: 10*9*8*7*6*5*4*3*2*1/6*5*4*3*2*1=5040

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Given Solution:

10 ! / 6 ! = 10 * 9 * 8 * 7 * 6 * 5 * 4 * 3 * 2 * 1 / ( 6 * 5 * 4 * 3 * 2 * 1).

We can simplify this by rewriting it as

10 * 9 * 8 * 7 * (6 * 5 * 4 * 3 * 2 * 1) / ( 6 * 5 * 4 * 3 * 2 * 1) = 10 * 9 * 8 * 7.

We see that the 6 * 5 * 4 * 3 * 2 * 1 in the numerator matches the same expression in the denominator, so when divided these expressions give us 1 and we end up with just

10 * 9 * 8 * 7 * 1 = 10 * 9 * 8 * 7.

Note that this is just the number of ways in which 4 objects can be chosen, in order, from a collection of 10 objects.

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Question:

`q006. We saw above that there are 23 * 22 * 21 * 20 * 19 ways to choose 5 individuals, in order, from 23 potential members. How could we express this number as a quotient of two factorials?

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Your solution: 23!/18!

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Given Solution:

If we divide 23 ! by 18 ! , the numbers from 18 down to 1 will occur in both the numerator and denominator and when we divide we will be left with just the numbers from 23 down to 19.

Thus

23 * 22 * 21 * 20 * 19 = 23 ! / 18 !.

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