A bag has 4 blue, 3 yellow and 2 green balls. The balls of the same color are identical. In how many ways can a child picks ball(s) out of the bag? He could even decide to pick ZERO balls.
A. 60
B. 1260
C. 24
D. 120
E. 9
The OA is the option A.
I am confused here. How can I solve this PS question? Is not 9! / 4!*3!*2! ??? Help!!!
A bag has 4 blue, 3 yellow and 2 green balls. The balls
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Number of options for the 4 blue balls = 5. (0, 1, 2, 3, or 4 blue balls may be chosen, for a total of 5 options.)M7MBA wrote:A bag has 4 blue, 3 yellow and 2 green balls. The balls of the same color are identical. In how many ways can a child picks ball(s) out of the bag? He could even decide to pick ZERO balls.
A. 60
B. 1260
C. 24
D. 120
E. 9
Number of options for the 3 yellow balls = 4. (0, 1, 2, or 3 yellow balls may be chosen, for a total of 4 options.)
Number of options for the 2 green balls = 3. (0, 1, or 2 green balls may be chosen, for a total of 3 options.)
To combine the options for each color, we multiply:
5*4*3 = 60.
The correct answer is A.
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The truth is that the wording of the question is not clear. From the way the question is worded, one might decide that the order matters, but it doesn't really.M7MBA wrote:A bag has 4 blue, 3 yellow and 2 green balls. The balls of the same color are identical. In how many ways can a child picks ball(s) out of the bag? He could even decide to pick ZERO balls.
A. 60
B. 1260
C. 24
D. 120
E. 9
The OA is the option A.
I am confused here. How can I solve this PS question? Is not 9! / 4!*3!*2! ??? Help!!!
We are looking only for how many different combinations of colored balls can be picked out.
How can you tell that order does not matter? Well, the question indicates that the child may not pick all of the balls. So, even if order were to matter, there would be an additional factor, the number of balls picked out of the bag.
The answer that would involve BOTH different orders and different numbers of balls is not available, while the answer that involves only different numbers of balls is available. So, you have to go with the latter.
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