At 12:54 PM 7/4/03 -0400, Bernie Cosell wrote:
On 4 Jul 2003 at 9:13, Henry Baker wrote:
At 11:11 AM 7/4/03 -0400, William Thurston wrote:
20. How many different five-member teams can be made from a group of eight students, if each student has an equal chance of being chosen? (1) 40 (2) 56 (3) 336 (4) 6720
I think the correct answer is not among these choices: 1 It's very poorly phrased, being neither colloquial English or typical mathematical/combinatorial English.
I agree that there is a reading that would give the choice "1", but since that choice is not available, you have to assume that that interpretation is not intended.
Could you elaborate on how to get the choice '1'? Hmm...well... I guess you could say that you can only make *ONE* five-man team, but you could do it in 56 different ways... Is that what you had in minde?
Yes. Once you had made one team, you don't have enough people left over to make another. BTW, the "equal chance" bit is a red herring. The probabilities don't matter, so long as none of them are zero. I think that this is thrown in there to indicate that you should put on your "combinatorial & probability" hat for this question.