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If n friends go to a diner, and when leaving, each of them take a hat randomly, what is the probability of "nobody gets his original hat"? My book says it goes to 1/e, but I don't have more explanation... Can you help me?

N. F. Taussig
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2 Answers2

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On one hand from inclusion-exclusion principle it follows, that the number of ways to distribute the hats in a way, that nobody gets the original one is $!n := n! \sum_{i = 0}^n \frac{(-1)^i}{i!}$.

On the other hand $e^x = \sum_{i = 0}^n \frac{x^i}{i!}$.

Thus $\lim_{n \to \infty} \frac{!n}{n!} = \frac{1}{e}$

Chain Markov
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It will be $P(E)=\frac{D_n}{n!}$ where $ D_n $ is dearangement of n objects at n places . For more about dearangement you can listen to podcast https://podcasts.google.com?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy9lZjA0NTQ4L3BvZGNhc3QvcnNz&episode=NTU3YmQyZTQtYjVlOC00MTlkLTliN2UtNjhlYjU5MzFiNGIw Or. Listen to inclusion and exclusion principle , Dearrangement And Number of onto functions. on TuneIn http://tun.in/tjwNzd

And as $n \rightarrow \infty \,\,,\frac{D_n}{n!}=\frac{1}{e}$

Rajan
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