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#1 2008-03-21 22:03:17
- chetah
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- Registered: 2008-02-15
- Posts: 32
Discrete Math
How many ways are there to pick a five-person basketball team form 12 possible players? How many selections include the weakest and the strongest players?
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#2 2008-03-23 07:49:59
- mathsyperson
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- Registered: 2005-06-22
- Posts: 4,900
Re: Discrete Math
The answer to the first question is simply 12C5 = 792.
For the second part, two of the team members are already determined, so you're effectively finding the number of ways to choose a sub-team of 3 players, with a choice of 10.
Or, if you wanted to be a bit more interesting, you could work out the probability that a random selection of 5 players out of 12 will contain the strongest and weakest players (ie. 5/12 x 4/11), then multiply that answer by the answer to the first part.
Why did the vector cross the road?
It wanted to be normal.
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