Combinations - RD Sharma Solved Problems

 

What is a Combination?

A combination is a mathematical technique that determines the number of possible arrangements in a collection of items where the order of the selection does not matter. In combinations, you can select the items in any order.

Combinations can be confused with permutations. However, in permutations, the order of the selected items is essential. For example, the arrangements ab and ba are equal in combinations (considered as one arrangement), while in permutations, the arrangements are different.

Formula for Combination

Mathematically, the formula for determining the number of possible arrangements by selecting only a few objects from a set with no repetition is expressed in the following way:

 

 

Where:

• n – the total number of elements in a set
• k – the number of selected objects (the order of the objects is not important)
• ! – factorial

A few important results on combinations are as follows:

• The number of ways of selecting n objects out of n objects is:${}^n{C}_n=\frac{n!}{n!\left(n-n\right)!}=\frac{n!}{n!0!}=1$
• The number of ways of selecting 0 objects out of n objects is:${}^n{C}_0=\frac{n!}{0!\left(n-0\right)!}=\frac{n!}{0!n!}=1$
• The number of ways of selecting 1 object out of n objects is: ${}^n{C}_1=\frac{n!}{1!\left(n-1\right)!}=\frac{n\times \left(n-1\right)!}{\left(n-1\right)!}=n$
• ${}^n{C}_r{=}^n{C}_{n-r}$
• ${}^n{C}_r{+}^n{C}_{r-1}{=}^{n+1}{C}_r$