Derangement

In combinatorial mathematics, a derangement is a permutation of the elements of a set in which no element appears in its original position. In other words, a derangement is a permutation that has no fixed points.

The number of derangements of a set of size n is known as the subfactorial of n or the n-th derangement number or n-th de Montmort number (after Pierre Remond de Montmort). Notations for subfactorials in common use include !n, D_n, d_n, or n¡.

For n > 0, the subfactorial !n equals the nearest integer to n!/e, where n! denotes the factorial of n and e is Euler's number.

The problem of counting derangements was first considered by Pierre Raymond de Montmort in his Essay d'analyse sur les jeux de hazard. in 1708; he solved it in 1713, as did Nicholas Bernoulli at about the same time.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.