SOLUTION: Please i need help with this word problem. in how many ways can 8 passengers arrange themselves in a 12-seater car? is it permutation or combination? thank you.

Think of the 12 seats as seat 1, seat 2, seat 3, ..., seat 12.

It matters which seat, or position, they sit in, so it's a PERMUTATION.

So the answer would be "12 Position 8" or P(12,8) or 12P8 or .

It is sometimes written in those different ways.  The answer is gotten by
starting with 12 and multiplying it by 1 less, then by one less, etc. until
there are 8 factors.

12×11×10×9×8×7×6×5 = 19958400

That's because there are 12 ways to seat the 1st passenger,
then there are 11 ways to seat the 2nd passenger,
then there are 10 ways to seat the 3rd passenger,
then there are 9 ways to seat the 4th passenger,
then there are 8 ways to seat the 5th passenger,
then there are 7 ways to seat the 6th passenger,
then there are 6 ways to seat the 7th passenger,
then there are 5 ways to seat the 8th passenger.

Edwin