Permutations

Overview

A permutation is an operation that takes a set of elements, and reorders them. As a simple example, the following shows a permutation of the numbers from 1 to 5.

1	2	3	4	5
5	2	4	1	3

Permutations as a Group

The set of Permutations forms a group. That is, permutations can be composed. If {% p %} is a permuation and {% q %} is a permutation, the p followed by q, written as {% qp %}, is also a permuation.