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Permutation & combination

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by parveen110 » Fri Jan 24, 2014 9:20 am
In a convex nonagon all the diagonals are drawn. These diagonals intersect each other at p points inside the nonagon, q points on the nonagon and r points outside the nonagon. Find the maximum possible value of p.

a. 124
b. 96
c. 120
d. 126

OA d
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by GMATGuruNY » Fri Jan 24, 2014 11:39 am
parveen110 wrote:In a convex nonagon all the diagonals are drawn. These diagonals intersect each other at p points inside the nonagon, q points on the nonagon and r points outside the nonagon. Find the maximum possible value of p.

a. 124
b. 96
c. 120
d. 126

OA d
A nonagon is a 9-sided figure.
A diagonal is formed by connecting one vertex to a non-adjacent vertex.
We need to count the total number of interior intersections that can be yielded by these diagonals.

Image
Here, an intersection is formed by means of vertices A, B, C and D.

Image
Here, an intersection is formed by means of vertices C, E, G and I.

Image
Here, an intersection is formed by means of vertices A, E, G and H.

The cases above illustrate that EVERY COMBINATION OF 4 VERTICES can serve to yield exactly ONE INTERSECTION.
Thus, the total number of possible intersections is equal to the total number of ways to choose 4 vertices from 9 options:
9C4 = (9*8*7*6)/(4*3*2*1) = 126.

The correct answer is D.
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