Question

Question: Explain the difference between a permutation and a combination. Give an example of each in your explanation.

Answer 1

Permutation refers to the different ways of arranging a set of objects in sequential order. The order of the objects is relevant..

Example: The permutations of the letters in the set {a,b,c} are

abc acb bac bca cab cba

Combination refers to several ways of choosing items from a large set of objects. The order of the objects do not matter.

Example: 2 alphabets can be chosen form the set {a,b,c} in the following ways:

{a,b},{b,c},{c,a}

The order of the objects do not matter, that is, {a,c} and {c,a} are equivalent.