SOLUTION: There are 9 people on a basketball team. The probability that you and your two best friends get to stand together in the team picture is:

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Question 1196822: There are 9 people on a basketball team. The probability that you and your two best friends get to stand together in
the team picture is:
Found 2 solutions by ikleyn, greenestamps:
Answer by ikleyn(52781) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
.
There are 9 people on a basketball team. The probability that you and your two best friends
get to stand together in the team picture is:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 


In all, there are 9! different line arrangements on the team picture.


Next, let's calculate the number of all favorable arrangements, where you and two your best friends are together


If we consider you and your two best friends as one object, 
then we have 9-3+1 = 7 objects to arrange.

So, we have 7! different arrangements of these 7 objects.


In addition, there are 3! = 1*2*3 = 6 permutations of the three persons in the small group.


It gives  6*7! all favorable arrangements.


Finally, the probability, which the problem asks for, is

    P = %286%2A7%21%29%2F%289%21%29 = 6%2F%288%2A9%29 = 1%2F%284%2A3%29 = 1%2F12.     ANSWER

Solved.



Answer by greenestamps(13200) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!


This is an extremely poorly worded question....

There is nothing that says you and your two best friends are on the team; if not, the probability that you get to stand together in the team picture is 0.

And there is nothing that says the 9 team members are in a single line in the team picture. A team picture of a team with 9 members will often (usually?) have the members in two lines, one behind the other.

Assuming that the team picture is with the 9 team members in one line, and that you and your two best friends are all on the team, then go with the response from the other tutor....