SOLUTION: From a collection of 51 store customers, 3 are to be chosen to receive a special gift. How many groups of 3 customers are possible?
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Question 1149892: From a collection of 51 store customers, 3 are to be chosen to receive a special gift. How many groups of 3 customers are possible? Answer by greenestamps(13203) (Show Source):
Anyone of the 51 can be chosen first; any of the remaining 50 second; and any of the remaining 49 third. So 51*50*49 different ORDERS in which 3 of the 51 can be chosen.
But for any given group of 3, the number of different orders in which they could have been chosen is 3*2*1.
So the number of different COMBINATIONS of 3 chosen from 51 is (51*50*49)/(3*2*1).
