Learning Outcomes
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
- Solve counting problems using the Addition Principle.
- Solve counting problems using the Multiplication Principle.
- Solve counting problems using permutations involving n distinct objects.
- Solve counting problems using combinations.
- Find the number of subsets of a given set.
- Solve counting problems using permutations involving n non-distinct objects.
- Apply the Binomial Theorem.
A new company sells customizable cases for tablets and smartphones. Each case comes in a variety of colors and can be personalized for an additional fee with images or a monogram. A customer can choose not to personalize or could choose to have one, two, or three images or a monogram. The customer can choose the order of the images and the letters in the monogram. The company is working with an agency to develop a marketing campaign with a focus on the huge number of options they offer. Counting the possibilities is challenging!
We encounter a wide variety of counting problems every day. There is a branch of mathematics devoted to the study of counting problems such as this one. Other applications of counting include secure passwords, horse racing outcomes, and college scheduling choices. We will examine this type of mathematics in this section.