Final answer:
The probability of a permutation starting with the letter M can be calculated as the number of permutations that start with M divided by the total number of permutations. The total number of permutations can be calculated using the (number of remaining letters - 1)! formula.
Step-by-step explanation:
To find the number of permutations that start with the letter M, we need to consider the total number of permutations of all the words and then count the ones that start with M. Let's say there are n total permutations and x of them start with M. The probability of a permutation starting with M can be calculated as x/n. To calculate the total number of permutations, we can use the formula n = (total number of words - 1)!, which represents the number of ways to arrange the remaining letters in the word. For example, consider the word 'Math'. The total number of permutations is (4-1)! = 3! = 3 x 2 x 1 = 6. Out of these 6 permutations, only 1 starts with M, which means the probability of a permutation starting with M is 1/6.