In how many ways can a selection be done of $5$ letters?

Question

In how many ways can a selection be done of $5$ letters out of $5 A's, 4B's, 3C's, 2D's $ and $1 E$.

$ a) 60 \\ b) 75 \\ \color{green}{c) 71} \\ d.) \text{none of these} $

Number of ways of selecting $5$ different letters = $\dbinom{5}{5} = 1$ way

<p>Number of ways to select $2$ similar and $3$ different letter = $\dbinom{4}{1}\times \dbinom{4}{3}=16$.</p>

<p>Number of ways of selecting $2$ similar + $2$ more similar letter and $1$ different letter = $\dbinom{4}{2}\times \dbinom{3}{1}=18$. </p>

<p>Number of ways to select $3$ similar and $2$ different letter = $\dbinom{4}{2}\times \dbinom{3}{1}=18$. </p>

<p>Number of ways to select $3$ similar and another $2$ other similar = $\dbinom{3}{1}\times \dbinom{3}{1}=9$ </p>

<p>Number of ways to select $4$ similar and $1$ different letter = $\dbinom{2}{1}\times \dbinom{4}{1}=8$</p>

<p>Ways of selecting </p>

<p>$5$ similar letters = $1$ </p>

<p>Total ways = $1+16+18+18+9+8+1= 71$</p>

Well I have the solution But I am not able to fully understand it.

Or if their could be an $\color{red}{\text{alternate way}}$ than it would be great.

I have studied maths up to $12$th grade.

Answer 1

If Order is Unimportant

The number of ways to choose $5$ letters (if their order is unimportant) is the coefficient of $x^5$ in $$ \begin{align} &\small\overbrace{(1+x)\vphantom{x^2}}^{1\text{ E}} \overbrace{\left(1+x+x^2\right)}^{2\text{ D's}} \overbrace{\left(1+x+x^2+x^3\right)}^{3\text{ C's}} \overbrace{\left(1+x+x^2+x^3+x^4\right)}^{4\text{ B's}} \overbrace{\left(1+x+x^2+x^3+x^4+x^5\right)}^{5\text{ A's}}\\ &=\frac{1-x^2}{1-x}\frac{1-x^3}{1-x}\frac{1-x^4}{1-x}\frac{1-x^5}{1-x}\frac{1-x^6}{1-x}\\ &=\frac{1-x^2-x^3-x^4+O\left(x^7\right)}{(1-x)^5}\\[3pt] &=\small\left[1-x^2-x^3-x^4+O\!\left(x^7\right)\right]\!\left[1+5x+15x^2+35x^3+70x^4+126x^5+210x^6+O\!\left(x^7\right)\right]\\[9pt] &=1+5x+14x^2+29x^3+49x^4+71x^5+90x^6+O\!\left(x^7\right)\tag{1} \end{align} $$ where we used the Binomial Theorem for $(1-x)^{-5}$ above.

The coefficient of $x^5$ in $(1)$ is $71$.

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If Order is Important

If the order of the letters is important, we can compute the exponential generating function with $$ \begin{align} &\small\overbrace{(1+x)\vphantom{\frac{x^2}{2!}}}^{1\text{ E}} \overbrace{\left(1{+}x{+}\frac{x^2}{2!}\right)}^{2\text{ D's}} \overbrace{\!\left(1{+}x{+}\frac{x^2}{2!}{+}\frac{x^3}{3!}\right)}^{3\text{ C's}} \overbrace{\!\left(1{+}x{+}\frac{x^2}{2!}{+}\frac{x^3}{3}{+}\frac{x^4}{4!}\right)}^{4\text{ B's}} \overbrace{\!\left(1{+}x{+}\frac{x^2}{2!}{+}\frac{x^3}{3!}{+}\frac{x^4}{4!}{+}\frac{x^5}{5!}\right)}^{5\text{ A's}}\\[3pt] &=\small1+5x+24\frac{x^2}{2!}+111\frac{x^3}{3!}+494\frac{x^4}{4!}+2111\frac{x^5}{5!}+8634\frac{x^6}{6!}+O\left(x^7\right)\tag{2} \end{align} $$

The coefficient of $\frac{x^5}{5!}$ in $(2)$ is $2111$.

Answer 2

Let $x_i$ be the number of letter $i$ chosen for $1\le i\le 5$, where we number the letters in alphabetical order.

We want to find the number of solutions in nonnegative integers to the equation $x_1+\cdots+x_5=5$

$\hspace{.5 in}$with the restrictions $x_1\le5,\; x_2\le4, \;x_3\le3,\; x_4\le2, \;x_5\le1$.

Let $S$ be the set of all solutions, and let $A_i$ be the set of solutions with $x_i\ge7-i$ for $i=2,\cdots,5$.

Using Inclusion-Exclusion, we have that

$\hspace{.15 in}\displaystyle\big|\overline{A_2}\cap\overline{A_3}\cap\overline{A_4}\cap\overline{A_5}\big|=|S|-\sum_{i}|A_i|+\sum_{i<j}|A_i\cap A_j|-\sum_{i<j<k}|A_i\cap A_j\cap A_k|+\cdots$

$\hspace{1.53 in}=|S|-|A_2|-|A_3|-|A_4|-|A_5|+|A_4\cap A_5|$

$\displaystyle\hspace{1.53 in}=\binom{9}{4}-\binom{4}{4}-\binom{5}{4}-\binom{6}{4}-\binom{7}{4}+\binom{4}{4}=\color{red}{71}$.

Answer 3

Second line: You can get 2 of a type from A,B,C or D so $4\choose 1$. Then ${4\choose3}$ to select 3 different letters from the 4 types not yet selected, and finally, apply multiplication principle.

Second last line: 4 of a type only from A or B, so ${2\choose1}$, 1 more selection from the remaining 4 types, ${4\choose 1}$, and multiply.

You should be able to understand the remaining along similar lines.

Answer 4

Ok so we are breaking this down by case:

Case 1: none of our letters are the same and we pick 5 distinct letters
Case 2a: exactly 2 of the letters are the same and the other 3 are distinct.
Case 2b: 2 of the letters are the same, 2 others are the same, and the fifth is distinct.
Case 3a: exactly 3 of the letters are the same and the other 2 are distinct.
Case 3b: exactly 3 of the letters are the same and the other 2 are also the same.
Case 4: exactly 4 of the letters are the same and the other 1 is distinct.
Case 5: all 5 letters are the same.

We see that any combination must be one of these $5$ cases, and there is no overlap in the $5$ cases. Thus we are going to sum up the number of total possibilities for each case.

Case 1: If we pick $5$ distinct letters, we pick one of each letter, so there is only $1$ way to do this.

Case 2a: First lets count the ways to pick the $2$ letters which are the same. It can't be E, so there are only $4$ ways to pick them. Second, we must pick $3$ more from the remaining $4$ letters (none of these can be the same letter as the first $2$ since that would be a different case). Thus we use $4$ choose $3$, which turns out to be $4$ options. We multiply these together to see that we have $4\times 4=16$ options for case 1.

Case 2b: We are now picking two pairs from four possible letters which have sufficient quantities. Thus the ways to pick the two pairs is $4$ choose $2$. The fifth letter is any of the remaining $3$ letters, so we have $6\times 3=18$ for this case.

Case 3a: Similarly, there are only $3$ ways to pick $3$ matching letters. Then we proceed to pick the other $2$ from $4$ choices, so we multiply $3$ by $4$ choose $2$ to get $3\times 6=18$ options for case 3.

Case 3b: There are $3$ ways to pick the triplet and the other pair only has $3$ options also, since it can't be the same letter as the triplet (that would be case 5). Thus there are $3\times 3=9$ possibilities.

Case 4: Hopefully you follow the pattern: there are only $2$ ways to pick $4$ of the same letter, and $4$ ways to pick the fifth letter, so we have $2\times 4=8$ for this case.

Case 5: Finally, there is only one way to pick $5$ of the same number.

Summing those together we get $1+16+18+18+9+8+1=71$ options. For me, this is the most straightforward approach once you understand it.

Answer 5

Well, you could just hammer through all of the possibilities. (You'll also appreciate why the shortcuts are there.)

Number of ways of selecting 5 different letters:
ABCDE (1)

Number of ways to select 2 similar and 3 different letter:
AABCD AABCE AABDE AACDE
BBCDE ABBCD ABBCE ABBDE
ACCDE ABCCD ABCCE BCCDE
ABCDD ABDDE ABCDD BCDDE (16)

Number of ways of selecting 2 similar + 2 more similar letter and 1 different letter:
AABBC AABBD AABBE
AACCD AACCE AABCC
AABDD AACDD AADDE
BBCCD BBCCE ABBCC
ABBDD BBCDD BBDDE
ACCDD BCCDD CCDDE (18)

Number of ways to select 3 similar and 2 different letters:
AAABC AAABD AAABE AAACD AAACE AAADE
ABBBC ABBBD ABBBE BBBCD BBBCE BBBDE
ABCCC ACCCD ACCCE BCCCD BCCCE CCCDE (18)

Number of ways to select 3 similar and another 2 other similar:
AAABB AAACC AAADD
AABBB BBBCC BBBDD
AACCC BBCCC CCCDD (9)

Number of ways to select 4 similar and 1 different letter:
AAAAB AAAAC AAAAD AAAAE
ABBBB BBBBC BBBBD BBBBE (8)

Number of ways to select 5 similar letters:
AAAAA (1)

Let's look at just one of these sets to see if we can get a feel for the nomenclature:

Number of ways to select 3 similar and 2 different:

$$\dbinom{4}{2}\times \dbinom{3}{1}=18$$

This is read "$4$ choose $2$ times $3$ choose $1$." This is shorthand for:

$$\frac{4!}{2!(4-2)!}\times\frac{3!}{1!(3-1)!}$$

which is shorthand for:

$$\frac{4\times 3\times 2 \times 1}{2 \times 2 \times 1} \times \frac{3\times 2 \times 1}{1 \times 2 \times 1} = 18$$

Okay, but why?

One of those "chooses" refers to the 2 similar, and the other to the 3 similar. Note that they are all laid out in 3 groups of 6.

Perhaps I will come back later to go over the theory in more detail....