SOLUTION: A basketball passed Melvin Nigel Owen and Patrick for a total 4 times. It starts with Melvin and ends with him as well. How many way to pass?

Question 979023: A basketball passed Melvin Nigel Owen and Patrick for a total 4 times. It starts with Melvin and ends with him as well. How many way to pass?
Answer by KMST(5328) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
There are 4 basketball players (Melvin, Nigel, Owen, and Patrick).
They make 4 passes, starting and ending with Melvin, so that each one of them gets and passes the ball.
Melvin can pass the ball to any of the other 3 players.
He has 3 choices for his pass.
In each of those possible cases,
the person who gets the ball can pass it to one of the other 2 players.
That person has 2 choices.
So far, the ball has been with 3 of the players,
in each of the possible sequences of passes.
After that point, there are no choices:
the remaining player gets the ball next, and passes it back to Melvin.
So, there are ways to do the passing:
M --> N --> O --> P --> M
M --> N --> P --> O --> M
M --> O --> N --> P --> M
M --> O --> P --> N --> M
M --> P --> N --> O --> M
M --> P --> O --> N --> M .
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