Difference between revisions of "Combination"

(Notation)
(Added link)
Line 25: Line 25:
 
* [http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Forum/resources.php?c=182&cid=45&year=2000&p=385889 AIME 2000II/5]
 
* [http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Forum/resources.php?c=182&cid=45&year=2000&p=385889 AIME 2000II/5]
  
 
+
==Links==
 +
* [http://arml.yanco.com/20012002/armlcombinatorics.pdf]
 
== See also ==
 
== See also ==
  

Revision as of 13:21, 28 September 2007

A combination is a way of choosing $r$ objects from a set of $n$ where the order in which the objects are chosen is irrelevant. We are generally concerned with finding the number of combinations of size $r$ from an original set of size $n$


Notation

The common forms of denoting the number of combinations of ${r}$ objects from a set of ${n}$ objects is:

  • $\binom{n}{r}$
  • ${C}(n,r)$
  • $\,_{n} C_{r}$
  • $C_n^{r}$

Formula

${{n}\choose {r}} = \frac {n!} {r!(n-r)!}$

Derivation

Consider the set of letters A, B, and C. There are $3!$ different permutations of those letters. Since order doesn't matter with combinations, there is only one combination of those three. In general, since for every permutation of ${r}$ objects from ${n}$ elements $P(n,r)$, there are ${r}!$ more ways to permute them than to choose them. We have ${r}!{C}({n},{r})=P(n,r)$, or ${{n}\choose {r}} = \frac {n!} {r!(n-r)!}$.


Examples

Links

See also