Permutations and combinations

How many unique ways are there to arrange the letters in the word PRIOR ?


Check out the set of such problems

24 20 60 120 72

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2 solutions

Basic solution:

This is like filling 5 5 places with 5 5 no.s so it should be equivalent to 5 ! = 120 5! = 120

However, it is critical to note that the letter R is repeated twice which means that I R 1 O P R IR_{1}OPR is different to I R 2 O P R IR_{2}OPR which is not what we want.

Since there are 2 R s 2 R's we will 5 ! 2 ! = 120 2 = 60 \dfrac{5!}{2!} = \dfrac{120}{2} = \large \color{#3D99F6} \boxed{60}


Check out the wiki on Permutations

If P P represents the number of distinct permutations of n n things taken all at a time when, of the n n things, there are u u alike, v v others alike, w w others alike, etc., then

P = n ! u ! v ! w ! . . . P=\dfrac{n!}{u!v!w!...}

In the word P R I O R PRIOR , there are two R s R's , so

P = 5 ! 2 ! = 60 P=\dfrac{5!}{2!}=\boxed{60}

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