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offices can be empty

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by sanju09 » Sat Feb 21, 2009 5:05 am
A certain company assigns employees to offices in such a way that some of the offices can be empty and more than one employee can be assigned to an office. In how many ways can the company assign 3 employees to 2 different offices?

A. 5
B. 6
C. 7
D. 8
E. 9
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Source: — Problem Solving |

by DanaJ » Sat Feb 21, 2009 6:00 am
Few cases here:
a. 3 employees in one office and none in the other: 2 cases
b. 2 employees in one office and another in the other: 3*2 = 6 cases.

I'd go with 8 cases in total.

sanju09: you;re having a combinatorics/probabilities day, huh? :)
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by sureshbala » Sat Feb 21, 2009 6:14 am
Each employee can be assigned in 2 different ways .So all the 3 employees can be assigned in 2*2*2 = 8 ways
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by ven4gmat » Sat Feb 21, 2009 8:26 am
sureshbala wrote:Each employee can be assigned in 2 different ways .So all the 3 employees can be assigned in 2*2*2 = 8 ways
agreed on this...seems to be simple after seeing your solution
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