Back to the M1S home page
Back to Breakdown

CHAPTER 4   COMBINATORICS AND PROBABILITY

       This chapter describes the use of combinatorics in probability calculations;  in situations where the sample outcomes in a sample space are equally likely, the probability of an event is computed by enumerating the number of sample outcomes contained in the event.  A typical description of such an experimental situation involves sampling n items from a finite population of N items.   The key components to identify are

• sampling carried out with/without replacement ?
• is the sample ordered/unordered ?
• are the items distinguishable/indistinguishable ?

Key techniques are

• the multiplication principle
• permutations and combinations
• hypergeometric probability calculations

These techniques are use in partitioning and occupancy/allocation problems to define probabilities.