document.write( "Question 918991: Having a lot of trouble with understanding Probabilities, Combinations, and Permutations. Please help. When I looked up a problem similar to this one I saw something like ! by the numbers (5! + 4! = 126) which was pretty confusing.\r
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document.write( "Exact Question: How many different 5-person basketball teams can a coach choose from among 7 players?\r
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document.write( "I thought all you had to do was multiply 5 x 7 which gives you 35, but I'm doubting the answer.\r
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document.write( "Thank you so so very much for reading this question and if you do proceed to answer please answer which ALOT detail. Sorry if I sound demanding, I can't stress how much probability, combination, and premutation confuses me. >.< \n" );
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Algebra.Com's Answer #557373 by Hawksfan(61)![]() ![]() You can put this solution on YOUR website! In this problem you will either have a permutation or a combination. But how do you tell? \r \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "With a permutation, the order or how the items are arranged matters greatly. \n" ); document.write( "With a combination, the order doesn't matter at all. \r \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "The example above talks about a problem where it doesn't matter what \n" ); document.write( "order the players are in. We can have the 5 player teams in any order. \n" ); document.write( "Therefore its a combination. \r \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "The formula for a combination is nCr = n!/(n-r)! \r \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "where n = total number of items \n" ); document.write( "r = number of items of subgroup \r \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "examples of n! (separate from the problem) \n" ); document.write( "4! = 4*3*2*1 \n" ); document.write( "9! = 9*8*7*6*5*4*3*2*1 \n" ); document.write( "______________________________\r \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( " nCr = n!/r!(n-r)!\r \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "n = 7, r =5 \r \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "7C5 = 7!/5!(7-5)! = 7*6*5*4*3*2*1/[(5*4*3*2*1)(2*1)] \n" ); document.write( "7C5 = 7*6/2 \n" ); document.write( " = 21 \n" ); document.write( " |