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In mathematics, a combination is a selection of items from a set that has distinct members, such that the order of selection does not matter (unlike permutations).For example, given three fruits, say an apple, an orange and a pear, there are three combinations of two that can be drawn from this set: an apple and a pear; an apple and an orange; or a pear and an orange.
It can be used to solve many simple counting problems, such as how many ways there are to put n indistinguishable balls into k distinguishable bins. [4] The solution to this particular problem is given by the binomial coefficient ( n + k − 1 k − 1 ) {\displaystyle {\tbinom {n+k-1}{k-1}}} , which is the number of subsets of size k − 1 that ...
In this case the problem reduces to n − 2 people and n − 2 hats, because P 1 received h i ' s hat and P i received h 1 's hat, effectively putting both out of further consideration. For each of the n − 1 hats that P 1 may receive, the number of ways that P 2, ..., P n may all receive hats is the sum of the counts for the two cases.
Frobenius coin problem with 2-pence and 5-pence coins visualised as graphs: Sloping lines denote graphs of 2x+5y=n where n is the total in pence, and x and y are the non-negative number of 2p and 5p coins, respectively. A point on a line gives a combination of 2p and 5p for its given total (green).
Combinatorial modelling is the process which lets us identify a suitable mathematical model to reformulate a problem. These combinatorial models will provide, through the combinatorics theory, the operations needed to solve the problem.
Combinatorics is an area of mathematics primarily concerned with counting, both as a means and as an end to obtaining results, and certain properties of finite structures.It is closely related to many other areas of mathematics and has many applications ranging from logic to statistical physics and from evolutionary biology to computer science.
Solution of a travelling salesman problem: the black line shows the shortest possible loop that connects every red dot. In the theory of computational complexity, the travelling salesman problem (TSP) asks the following question: "Given a list of cities and the distances between each pair of cities, what is the shortest possible route that visits each city exactly once and returns to the ...
Combinatorial explosion is sometimes used to justify the intractability of certain problems. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] Examples of such problems include certain mathematical functions , the analysis of some puzzles and games, and some pathological examples which can be modelled as the Ackermann function .