

There are 6! permutations of the 6 letters of the word square.Ī) In how many of them is r the second letter? _ r _ _ _ _ī) In how many of them are q and e next to each other?Ī) Let r be the second letter. In how many different ways could you arrange them?Įxample 2. The number of permutations of n different things taken n at a timeĮxample 1. We mean, "4! is the number of permutations of all 4 of 4 different things.") (To say "taken 4 at a time" is a convention.

Thus the number of permutations of 4 different things taken 4 at a time is 4!. Therefore the number of permutations of 4 different things is 3 ways remain to choose the second, 2 ways to choose the third, and 1 way to choose the last. Let us now consider the total number of permutations of all four letters. abĪb means that a was chosen first and b second ba means that b was chosen first and a second and so on. 3 or 12 possible ways to choose two letters from four.That is, to each of those possible 4 there will correspond 3. After that has happened, there will be 3 ways to choose the second. We can draw the first in 4 different ways: either a or b or c or d. If something can be chosen, or can happen, or be done, in m different ways, and, after that has happened, something else can be chosen in n different ways, then the number of ways of choosing both of them is m įor example, imagine putting the letters a, b, c, d into a hat, and then drawing two of them in succession.
