ON A PROBLEM OF AERANGEMENTS.
248
[669
all the substitutions which move every letter. Thus when n = 5, we obtain the 44 sub
stitutions for the letters abode, viz. these are
{abode), &c., 24 symbols obtained by permuting in every way the four letters
b, c, d, <?;
(ab) (ode), &c., 20 symbols corresponding to the 10 partitions ab, ode, and for each
of them 2 arrangements such as ode, ced.
And then if we reject those symbols which contain in any ( ) two consecutive letters,
we have the substitutions which give the arrangements wherein the letter in the
first place is not a or b, that in the second place not b or c, and so on. In
particular, when n = 5, rejecting the substitutions which contain in any ( ), ab, be, cd, de,
or ea, we have 13 substitutions, which may be thus arranged:—
(acbed), (ac)(bed), (acebd), (adbec), (aedbc),
(aedbc), (bd){aec),
(acedb), (ce)(adb),
(aecbd), (ad) (bee),
(adeeb), (be) (ado).
Here in the first column, performing on the symbol (acbed) the substitution (abode),
we obtain (bdeae), = (aebdc), the second symbol; and so again and again operating
with (abode), we obtain the remaining symbols of the column; these are for this
reason said to be of the same type. In like manner, symbols of the second column
are of the same type; but the symbols in the remaining three columns are each of
them a type by itself; viz. operating with (abode) upon (acebd), we obtain (bdace),
= (acebd)-, and the like as regards (adbec) and (aedbc) respectively. The 13 substitutions
are thus of 5 different types, or say the arrangements to which they belong, viz.
cebad, ceabd, edeab, deabc, eabed,
edacb, edabc,
caebd, daebc,
edbac, debac,
daecb, deacb,
are of 5 different types. The question to determine for any value of n, the number
of the different types, is, it would appear, a difficult one, and I do not at present
enter upon it.