SOLUTION: Thanks in advance for helping me! I truley don`t understand. Please help me to find the answer! Here is the question: You can draw 1 segment to connect 2 points and 3 disti

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Question 126752This question is from textbook Prentice Hall Mathmatics Pre-Algebra
: Thanks in advance for helping me! I truley don`t understand. Please help me to find the answer!
Here is the question:
You can draw 1 segment to connect 2 points and 3 distinct segments to connect 3 named points. How many segments can you draw to connect five points if no three of the points lie on the same line?
Please help me Thank you sooooooo much! K. This question is from textbook Prentice Hall Mathmatics Pre-Algebra

Answer by solver91311(24713) (Show Source):
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If you have 5 points, you can make 4 lines from the first point to each of the others. Then you also have 4 lines from the second point to each of the others, but you have already accounted for one of those 4 lines in the 4 lines from the first point, so you can only create 3 new ones. Similarly, from the 3rd point you can only create 2 new lines, and from the 4th point, only 1 new line. Finally, when you get to the 5th point, all possible lines have been created, and you can create no new lines.
4 + 3 + 2 + 1 + 0 = 10.