Circular Permutation

The number of ways to arrange

turned over) circle is

distinct objects along a fixed (i.e., cannot be picked up out of the plane and

The number is
instead of the usual factorial
because the circle can be rotated.

since all cyclic permutations of objects are equivalent

For example, of the

permutations of three objects, the
distinct circular permutations
are
and
. Similarly, of the
permutations of four objects, the
distinct
circular permutations are
,
,
,
,
, and
. Of
these, there are only three free permutations (i.e., inequivalent when flipping the circle is allowed):
,
, and
. The number of free circular permutations of order is
for
, 2, and

for

, giving the sequence 1, 1, 1, 3, 12, 60, 360, 2520, ... (OEIS A001710).

This lesson introduces the concept of circular permutations along with its formula.
Learn how to determine the number of ways to arrange items in a circle, and when
you are through take the quiz to see what you have learned.

What Is a Permutation?
How many ways can the letters A, B, C, and D be arranged in a line? If the order of the letters is
changed, does that make a new arrangement? Since the letters are all different, changing the
order does make a new arrangement. Thus, we call this type of question a permutation because
the order of the items matters. A permutation is just an arrangement of n items in which the
order matters.
Here are all of the possible ways to arrange these four letters:

ABCD ABDC ACBD ACDB ADBC ADCB

BACD BADC BCAD BCDA BDAC BDCA
CABD CADB CBAD CBDA CDAB CDBA
DABC DACB DBAC DBCA DCAB DCBA
If you count up the number of different arrangements, you will get 24. Another way to reach this
conclusion is to think of it like this. There are four letter choices for the first position in the group,
three letter choices left for the second position, two letter choices left for the third position, and
finally, one letter left for the fourth position. This allows us to create an equation to get our
answer:
(4) * (3) * (2) * (1) = 4! = 24 ways
Note that 4! means 4 factorial, which is just another way to write (4) * (3) * (2) * (1).

What Is the Effect of Putting the Items in a Circle?

What if the letters were arranged in a circle instead? Would this affect the number of different
possible arrangements? This type of situation is called a circular permutation, which is simply
finding the arrangement of things in a circle. Look at these two circle arrangements. At first
glance, they appear to be different, but ask yourself another question. Is it possible to rotate the
figure on the left to make it look like the figure on the right? Since the answer is yes, this means
that the letters are in the same position relative to each other; therefore, this is not a new
arrangement.

As a matter of fact, there are four arrangements that are the same. Here are the other two.

In this diagram, each arrangement (from the original 24) that is the same in a circle is also
highlighted in the same color so you can see the duplicates more easily.

Notice that the first group in row 1 (highlighted in yellow) corresponds to the circle on the left in
the first pair, and the first group in row four (also highlighted in yellow) corresponds to the circle
on the right in the first pair. There is a group in yellow in the second and third rows as well that
correspond to the second pair of circles. This means that there are three duplicates of each
grouping from row one. Rotating the circle does not create new arrangements. If we divide the
total by 4, this will result in the number of distinct (unique) arrangements in a circle.
4! / 4 = 3! = (3) * (2) * (1) = 6
Now you can see all of the arrangements from row one: