# Combinatorics question involving derangements of elements

If $n$ people put their names in a bag, mix it up, and redraw at random, what is the probability that exactly $i$ people get their names back? I have an expression we learned in class about the number of derangements (permutations in which no elements are mapped to themselves) of $n$ elements, $D_{n}$ as well as the exponential generating function, $D$, and I feel like I could use it to solve this problem, but I'm not sure how. Any advice?

• The number of "favourables" is the number of ways to choose the $i$ people who get their own names, times the number of derangements of $n-i$ objects. Nov 4, 2015 at 16:32
• Okay, so you're saying my expression will look something like (n choose i) * $D_{n-i}$ ? That seems too simple (not that I don't believe you), but is there anything else you can say about it? Nov 4, 2015 at 16:39
• Or that expression, over the number of possible outcomes? Nov 4, 2015 at 16:42
• Yes, we divide the number of favourables by the total number $n!$ of permutations to get the probability. Nov 4, 2015 at 16:46
• Thank you! I definitely see intuitively how this is the answer. We have the number of ways we can choose i from n, times the number of ways we can leave n-i unpermuted, over the number of possible permutations. Sound right? Nov 4, 2015 at 16:50

You can use the expression you learned in class about dearangements $(!n)$.
The number of ways to choose which people gets thier names back is $\binom ni$. And the number of ways to dearrange the others $!(n-i)$ you can calculate. So you get the number of partial dearrangements to $\binom ni\cdot !(n-i)$. therefore the probability is: $$\frac{\binom ni\cdot !(n-i)}{n!}$$
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