A combination of a set of objects is a selection of one or more of the objects without considering the order.
Formally, a r-combination of n distinct objects is a selection of r objects from these n objects in which the order of the selection does not matter.
We denote a r-combination of n distinct objects by ‘n choose r’.
By multiplication principle, we see that ‘n permute r’, is the same as the number of ways of choosing r objects first, and then arranging the r objects.
Therefore, ‘n choose r’ is equal to,
‘n permute r’ divided by ‘r factorial’, which is therefore equal to
, ‘n factorial’, divided by
‘n minus r, factorial’
times ‘r factorial’.
Take note that ‘n choose r’, is equal to ‘n choose, n minus r’. For example, to choose 6 people from a group of 10 people is the same as choosing 4 of them whom you do not want.
Let us look an example.