How to Count Seating Arrangements

How to Count: The Basics
By Raymond Chou; October 11, 2017
Introduction
I know it kind of seems ridiculous, having to read a paper on how to count - after all, have we
not been taught how to do that since childhood? Well...here’s a question.
Example 1. Albert, Bernard, and Chelsea go to the movies with their “friend group,” which
consists of 10 people. The trouble is, Albert, Bernard, and Chelsea all mutually hate each other,
and no 2 of the 3 may sit next to each other. All of the “friends” are to sit in the same row. If
there are 12 seats in a row, how many possible seating arrangements are there?
My, my, my, what a problem. We’ll get back to this problem later, after we introduce a few
tools that may or may not be useful.
The Multiplication Principle
If events A and B are independent, and there are m outcomes for event A, and n outcomes for
event B, then there are m*n outcomes for the two events together.
If you have 5 pairs of shoes, and 7 pairs of socks, you not only need to buy more socks (why do
you have so many shoes?), but you will have 5*7 = 35 different possible combinations of shoes
and socks. To see why this is, let us consider the ordered pairs of the form (socks, shoes).
Exercise: Imagine you only have 2 pairs of shoes, and 4 pairs of socks. Make a list of ordered
pairs of the shoes and socks, and verify that you do indeed have 8 possible combinations.
You may draw a tree diagram (I’m too lazy to do it here) to see why this works.
In mathematics, many properties/theorems/principles are typically stated for only two objects
(since that is all you really need), but they actually can apply to any finite amount of objects.
The multiplication principle is stated for strictly two events - but it turns out a more general
version of this is true as well.
If events A1 , A2 , …, An are independent, and there are m1 outcomes for A1 , m2 outcomes for A2 ,
…, and mn outcomes for An , then there are m1*m 2*...*m
n outcomes for the n events together.
Exercise: Prove this by induction.
Factorials and Permutations
We are now ready for our first tool: the factorial! Suppose there are n people standing in a line.
(And also, assume that all of these people are different) How many ways can you order the n
people in line?
Well, the first thing we must do is to create a process for counting the different ways. Of
course, we could always end up just listing literally every single possible variation (in fact, in we
are desperate enough, we may resort to this - sometimes computers do just that), but as
human beings, perhaps we can find some faster way. And indeed, there is.
One thing we can do is to begin manually counting, observe a pattern, and quickly realize that
we can “skip a few steps.” We see that, if we draw a tree, we have n possibilities for who is to
be first in line. For each of the people that are first in line, we have n-1 choices for who is to be
second. After choosing the first two people, we see that there are n-2 choices for who is to be
third, n-3 choices for who is fourth, and so on. In general, for any 1 =< k <= n, there are n-k+1
choices for who is to be the kth person in line.
Multiplying these together, we obtain:
n*(n-1)*(n-2)*...*3*2*1 different ways. We call this number n factorial, or n!.
If we interpret n! as the number of ways to arrange n people in a line, then notice that this
means that 0! = 1. How many ways are there to order 0 people in a line? There’s exactly 1 way
for this to happen - nothing happens!
Let’s try a more difficult problem.
Example 2. There are 20 seats in a row in a movie theatre, and a group of 8 friends go to watch
a movie. How many ways are there to arrange these 8 children if the only restriction is that they
all must sit in the same row?
Just to clarify, any one of them can sit in any one of the 20 chairs - as long as no two of them sit
in the same chair.
An easy way to count this is to arrange them in order, and have them pick seats. The first friend
has 20 seats to pick from, the second friend has 19 seats to pick from, and so on, noting that
the 8th friend has 13 seats to pick from. So the solution to our problem is:
20*19*18*17*16*15*14*13 = 5,079,110,400.
There are over 5 billion ways to organize just these 8 friends! In general, when distributing k
distinguishable (you can tell them apart, like the friends in this case) objects into n
distinguishable boxes (you can tell them apart - for example, each chair is labeled something
else), where only one thing can go in each box, there are:
P(n,k) = n*(n-1)*...*(n-k+1) ways to do this.
It might look like we can make this expression a little nicer, and in fact we can!
P(n,k) = n*(n-1)*...*(n-k+1) = [ n*(n-1)*...*(n-k+1) ] * (n-k)! / (n-k)! = n! / (n-k)!
This little trick is called completing the factorial. We noticed that P(n-k) looks like a factorial
with the end bit missing, so we multiplied and divided by the rest!
Perhaps this formula tells us something about P(n,k) philosophically as well - which brings us to
our next technique: overcounting and dividing/subtracting away.
A common technique is to overcount the number of things we need (usually because it is much
easier to do so), and then subtract away all of the ones that we don’t need. In this case, if there
are k children that are to go into n seats, then we can pretend that there are n-k “ghost
children.” Notice that there are indeed n ways to order the children AND the ghost children
together! But we overcounted - how many times did we overcount? Well, we can’t actually see
the ghost children, so we need to divide away all of the different ways we can arrange them.
Why? Because for each one of our desired permutations (ways to arrange the real children), we
can keep those children fixed, and we can arrange the n-k ghost children however we like! So
we overcounted each one of our desired permutations by the number of ways to arrange the
ghost children - namely (n-k)! So we divide away the number of times we overcounted; hence
we divide n! by (n-k)!
Combinations
What happens if now we were putting some random object, say tennis balls, in the chairs? Let’s
pretend that we can’t tell the tennis balls apart. In other words, we only care about a selection
of chairs. How many different selections of k chairs are possible?
Well, we once again use the technique of overcounting! Let’s pretend all of my tennis balls are
different. Then, if we are putting k tennis balls in n chairs, there are P(n,k) = n!/(n-k)! ways to do
this. For each one of our selections, we then have k! different ways to arrange the balls! So it
turns out, for each selection of chairs, we overcounted k! times. It then makes sense to divide
away the k!. We call this a combination.
C(n,k) = P(n,k)/k! = n! / [ (n-k)! k! ]
Notice that the two numbers in the factorials in the denominator add to the one in the top. This
is no coincidence, and in fact, allows to state a very interesting fact:
Theorem. C(n,k) = C(n, n-k).
Proof. C(n,k) = n!/[ (n-k)!k! ] = n!/ [ (n-(n-k))!(n-k)! ] C(n,n-k). QED
Noting that k = n - (n-k). This should be obvious, since n-k is the number that adds to k to obtain
n.
Philosophically, however, there are stronger implications than just a formula - we see that the
formula does indeed agree with reality. Instead of looking at selections of chairs, we could also
count the number of ways that we don’t select the chairs - and it turns out that they’re the
same!
Putting it All Together...For Now.
We are now ready to try the problem stated at the beginning of this chapter.
Example 1. Albert, Bernard, and Chelsea go to the movies with their “friend group,” which
consists of 10 people. The trouble is, Albert, Bernard, and Chelsea all mutually hate each other,
and no 2 of the 3 may sit next to each other. All of the “friends” are to sit in the same row. If
there are 12 seats in a row, how many possible seating arrangements are there?
There are many components to this problem - the important thing is to reduce it to a problem
where we only need to use tools that we already have. One thing we notice immediately is that
we can deal with the problem of the selection of the chairs and the ordering of the friends
separately. If I first pick which chairs I’ll put the kids in, then order the friends (or vice versa),
then I will be able to obtain every possible arrangement this way, exactly once! In other words,
the selection of the chairs and the ordering of the friends are independent! This will simplify
the problem drastically.
How many ways are there to select 10 chairs from 12? Well… C(12,10) = 12!/(10!2!) = 66.
Now comes the hard part...ordering the friends. How do we make it so that none of Albert,
Bernard, and Chelsea sit next to each other?
The key insight is to see that we can separate the “good friends” from the “bad friends,” and
order them independently. In other words, let’s put the 7 “good friends” in a line. Where do we
insert the “bad friends?” We then look at the spaces between the 7 good friends! Note that
there are exactly 6 spaces between the 7 good friends, and 1 space before and 1 space after to
insert the bad friends, making 8 spaces total. Each one of these spaces can only have 1 bad
friend! If we go by this arrangement, none of the three bad friends will ever have to sit next to
each other.
How many ways can I choose 3 of these 8 spaces for the bad friends? C(8,3). How many ways
can I order the 7 good friends? There are 7! ways. How many ways can I order the 3 bad
friends? There are 3! ways. Put it all together, and there are C(8,3)* 7! * 3! ways.
So the answer to the problem is C(12,10) * C(8,3) * 7! * 3! = 111,767,040 ways.
Here are a few more examples that illustrate some basic counting techniques.
Example 3. There are n people in a room. If everyone shook everyone else’s hand, how many
handshakes took place?
This is an elementary problem in graph theory - namely, if we draw n different “dots” (vertices),
and connect every dot to every other dot (edges), how many lines (edges) did we draw?
Let’s do it this way - let’s overcount and then divide out. Consider ordered pairs that look like
this: (person 1, person 2). Well, no one shakes their own hand, and so each person shakes n-1
hands, so there are n-1 such pairs for each person. This makes a total of n*(n-1) pairs. But wait
a minute! (Person A, Person B) and (Person B, Person A) are actually just the same handshake!
So we divide by 2 to obtain the real number of handshakes: namely, n*(n-1)/2.
Notice that this number is precisely C(n,2). This is no coincidence - the number of handshakes
that took place is the same as the number of ways to select 2 things from n things! We select 2
distinguishable things and have them do a handshake; C(n,2) counts the number of ways to do
this.
Example 4. On the cartesian coordinate plane, start at the point (0,0). We play a game where
during each turn, you may add 1 to the x-coordinate, or you may add 1 to the y-coordinate.
These are the only legal moves. How many paths can you take to reach (m,n), where m,n are
both positive integers? ( If we were attempting to reach (2,1), a sample path would be (0,0) ->
(1,0) -> (1,1) -> (2,1) )
If we denote by R the action of adding 1 to the x-coordinate, and U the action of adding 1 to the
y-coordinate, then it turns out that we may just count the number of different sequences that
look something like:
RRRUURRURURURURURUR…
How many things are there? Well, it doesn’t matter what order it happens in; x and y are
independent, so as long as there are m copies of R on the list, and n copies of U on the list, we’ll
reach (m,n).
Let’s count the lists this way - notice that our list will be of length m+n. (why?) Of that list, pick
m different spots for the R’s. The rest must be U’s, so no need to count those. Hence, there are
C(m+n, m) different ways to get to (m,n).
Sometimes, it helps to shift the perspective of the problem - instead of counting from one
“angle,” perhaps shifting the counting method, or the objects being counted, is beneficial. Here
is an elementary problem from set theory:
Example 5. If S is a set with n elements, how many subsets are there of S? (A subset of S is a set
where every element of the subset is also an element of S.)
To make things clear, let’s list all of the subsets of the set {1,2,3}. Those are: empty set (we pick
nothing), {1}, {2}, {3}, {1,2}, {1,3}, {2,3}, {1,2,3}. There are 8 subsets of {1,2,3}.
One way to count the number of subsets is to divide them up by set size (cardinality)! So for
{1,2,3}, there is 1 set with 0 elements (the empty set), 3 sets with 1 element, 3 sets with two
elements, and 1 set with 3 elements. (If you recognize these numbers are the third row of
Pascal’s triangle, then you are following along very nicely)
For a set with 3 elements:

-There are C(3,0) sets of 0 elements.
-There are C(3,1) sets with 1 elements.
So it turns out, the number of subsets is these numbers added together:
C(3,0) + C(3,1) + C(3,2) + C(3,3) = 8! It then follows that for a set of n elements, the number of
subsets is equal to
C(n,0) + C(n,1) + C(n,2) + … + C(n,n). Notice that C(n,0) = C(n,n) = 1; this makes sense
philosophically. How many ways are there to pick n objects from n? Only one way - pick all of
them. How many ways are there to pick 0 objects? 1. You don’t pick anything.
Unfortunately, listing the sum of combinations (which is equal to the sum of the nth row of
Pascal’s Triangle), doesn’t quite help us achieve a numerical answer.
However, reframing the problem does! What if, we assigned to each subset, an n-tuple (list of
length n) that looks something like: (0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,...,1), where the kth entry is 1 if k is in the
subset, and 0 if not? Then, for each entry, there are 2 possibilities - 0 and 1, and for n entries,
there are 2*2*2*...*2 = 2n possibilities!
So it turns out that C(n,0) + C(n,1) + … + C(n,n) = 2n . (Remark: Prove this with the binomial
theorem!)
In this problem, we used an idea called the Sum Principle - in other words, you can break the
total number of possibilities down, calculate them independently, and then add them all up. A
formal definition will be given in the next section.
Sometimes it’s best to count everything, and instead of counting what you want, count what
you don’t want and subtract it from the total. This is called counting the complement.
Example 6. There are 5 couples, to be seated in a row of 10 chairs. (a) How many seating
arrangements are there where none of the couples are together? (b) How many seating
arrangements are there where all of the couples are together?
As hinted from the advice just before the problem, it makes sense to count all of the possible
seating arrangements, and then to count the number of ways where at least one of the couples
are together. This might actually seem more difficult than counting the number of ways none of
the couples are together, but as it turns out, there is a very powerful tool that awaits us.
There are 10! ways to order the 10 people. Now we just have to find out how many ways at
least one of the couples is together! We write the equation:
#(None of the couples are together) = 10! - #(At least one of the couples is together)
We will defer solving this problem until we have an important tool - the Inclusion-Exclusion
principle.
Part (b) can seem very difficult, but if we pretend each couple is a singular unit, the problem
becomes much simpler. We will first order the couples, then order the members of the couple.
There are 5! ways to arrange the couples. For each couple, there are two ways to arrange them;
(Person A, Person B) and (Person B, Person A). Since there are 5 couples, there are 2*2*2*2*2 =
32 ways for the members of the couple to arrange themselves, given an arrangement of the
couples. So the total is 25 * 5! = 3840.
Exercises
1. In California, license plates begin with a number, followed by 3 letters, and then another
number. How many license plates are possible if:
a. There are no restrictions on the letters or the numbers
b. The numbers “666” and “911” are prohibited
c. License plates must begin with 7 or 8
d. No two of the same letters or numbers can be used
e. One of the letters used must appear twice, and each number that is used must
show up exactly twice
f. 9 is on the license plate if and only if Z is also on the license plate
2. There are 20 angsty businesspeople in a meeting, and they are to make a committee of
6 people. There are 10 men, and 10 women in this meeting. How many committees can
be made if:
a. There are no restrictions
b. There must be an equal number of men and women in the committee
3. There are 40 antennas; 15 of them are broken. All of the antennas are to be arranged in
a line. How many possible arrangements are there where none of the broken antennas
are next to each other? (Hint: Consult example 1)
4. At Sam’s Donuts, there are three different flavors of donuts - glazed, sprinkled, and
jelly-filled. How many boxes of 12 donuts are possible? (If two donuts of the same kind
are indistinguishable) You may have boxes that consist of 12 donuts of 1 flavor, or boxes
that have 6 of one flavor, 4 of another, and 2 of the final flavor, and so on. (Hint: Create
a line of donuts, and then put two dividers in between them, separating them into flavor
categories. How many different ways can you do this? This is called the “stars and bars”
method.)
5. There are k distinguishable balls to be placed into n distinguishable baskets. How many
ways can you do this if:
a. Only one ball can go into each basket
b. Any number of balls can go into any basket
6. There are 10 couples at a wedding, to be seated in a row of 20 seats. How many seating
arrangements are there where at least one of the couples is broken up?
7. How many functions are there that take an input from {1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9} and return an
output from {a,b,c,d,e}?
8. Poker Hands: A deck of cards has 52 cards. Each card has a suit and a value. The
different values are Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King. The four suits are
Diamonds, Clubs, Hearts, and Spades.
a. If you draw five cards from the deck, how many different possible hands are
there?
b. A full house is a five card hand where there are 3 cards of one value, and two of a
different value. How many full houses are there? (For example, KKK77 is a full
house, where the kings are of any 3 of the 4 suits, and the 7’s are of any 2 of the
4 suits)
c. A straight is a five card hand where the values of the cards are sequential. For
instance, A2345 is a straight, and 10JQKA is a straight, but 23457 is not a straight.
How many straights are there?
d. A straight flush is a straight where all of the cards are of the same suit. How
many straight flushes are there?
e. A two pair is exactly what it sounds like - there are two pairs of cards that are of
the same value, but is not a full house. How many two pairs are there?
9. A classroom has 40 students (20 girls and 20 boys), and 20 desks - two to a desk. How
many seating arrangements are there if every boy must sit next to a girl? If girls must sit
with girls and boys must sit with boys?

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How to Count: The Basics

By Raymond Chou; October 11, 2017

The Multiplication Principle

Factorials and Permutations

Multiplying these together, we obtain:

Let’s try a more difficult problem.

20191817161514*13 = 5,079,110,400.

P(n,k) = n(n-1)...*(n-k+1) ways to do this.

C(n,k) = P(n,k)/k! = n! / [ (n-k)! k! ]

Theorem. C(n,k) = C(n, n-k).

Putting it All Together...For Now.

For a set with 3 elements:

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How​ ​to​ ​Count:​ ​The​ ​Basics

By​ ​Raymond​ ​Chou;​ ​October​ ​11,​ ​2017

The​ ​Multiplication​ ​Principle

Factorials​ ​and​ ​Permutations

Multiplying​ ​these​ ​together,​ ​we​ ​obtain:

Let’s​ ​try​ ​a​ ​more​ ​difficult​ ​problem.

20*19*18*17*16*15*14*13​ ​=​ ​5,079,110,400.

P(n,k)​ ​=​ ​n*(n-1)*...*(n-k+1)​ ​ways​ ​to​ ​do​ ​this.

C(n,k)​ ​=​ ​P(n,k)/k!​ ​=​ ​n!​ ​/​ ​[​ ​(n-k)!​ ​k!​ ​]

Theorem.​​ ​C(n,k)​ ​=​ ​C(n,​ ​n-k).

Putting​ ​it​ ​All​ ​Together...For​ ​Now.

For​ ​a​ ​set​ ​with​ ​3​ ​elements:

Anda mungkin juga menyukai

How to Count: The Basics

By Raymond Chou; October 11, 2017

The Multiplication Principle

Factorials and Permutations

Multiplying these together, we obtain:

Let’s try a more difficult problem.

20191817161514*13 = 5,079,110,400.

P(n,k) = n(n-1)...*(n-k+1) ways to do this.

C(n,k) = P(n,k)/k! = n! / [ (n-k)! k! ]

Theorem. C(n,k) = C(n, n-k).

Putting it All Together...For Now.

For a set with 3 elements: