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Re: Permutations & Combinations
Posted:
Jan 9, 2005 5:49 PM
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In article <v3r2u0dl4v9j4afof0fdfki0jvdi5cup85@4ax.com>, Jerry Beeler wrote:
> I've been teaching 9th grade math for so long that ... well ... I think that
> Christ was a teen when I started.
>
> In any case, I'm now faced with some high level math and need a little help.
>
> I need a good, easy-to-understand explanation of "combinations" versus
> "permutations" with some example(s).
>
> Do 'appreciate it.
You can have a group of distinct kids and a (same number) group of distinct
tasks (roles in a play, positions on a baseball team, ...). The number of
different ways the kids can be assigned tasks is a permutation.
You can have a group of n distinct kids and have to choose a committee
of k members (k <= n). The number of ways the committee can be chosen
is a combinations "n choose k".
There should be hundreds of examples in any book on applied discrete math,
as combinatorics is usually a chapter or two in such books.
------------------------------------------------------------
Kevin Karplus karplus@soe.ucsc.edu http://www.soe.ucsc.edu/~karplus
Professor of Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz
Undergraduate and Graduate Director, Bioinformatics
(Senior member, IEEE) (Board of Directors, ISCB)
life member (LAB, Adventure Cycling, American Youth Hostels)
Effective Cycling Instructor #218-ck (lapsed)
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