A group of 8 friends want to play

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BTGmoderatorDC: Moderator; Posts: 7187; Joined: Thu Sep 07, 2017 4:43 pm; Followed by:23 members

A group of 8 friends want to play

by BTGmoderatorDC » Sun Dec 10, 2017 4:01 am

A group of 8 friends want to play doubles tennis. How many different ways can the group be divided into 4 teams of 2 people?

A. 420
B. 2520
C. 168
D. 90
E. 105

How will i get the best Option in this problem?

OA E

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Problem Solving | Sun Dec 10, 2017 4:01 am

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by GMATGuruNY » Sun Dec 10, 2017 4:09 am

lheiannie07 wrote:A group of 8 friends want to play doubles tennis. How many different ways can the group be divided into 4 teams of 2 people?

A. 420
B. 2520
C. 168
D. 90
E. 105

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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Sun Dec 10, 2017 10:06 am

lheiannie07 wrote:A group of 8 friends want to play doubles tennis. How many different ways can the group be divided into 4 teams of 2 people?

A. 420
B. 2520
C. 168
D. 90
E. 105

Let the 8 people be: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and H

Take the task of creating the teams and break it into stages.

Stage 1: Select a partner for person A
There are 7 people to choose from, so we can complete stage 1 in 7 ways

ASIDE: There are now 6 people remaining. Each time we pair up two people (as we did in stage 1), we'll next focus on the remaining person who comes first ALPHABETICALLY.
For example, if we paired A with B in stage 1, the remaining people are C, D, E, F, G and H. So, in the next stage, we'll a partner for person C.
Likewise, if we paired A with E in stage 1, the remaining people are B, C, D, F, G and H. So, in the next stage, we'll a partner for person B.
And so on...

Stage 2: Select a partner for the remaining person who comes first ALPHABETICALLY
There are 5 people remaining, so we can complete this stage in 5 ways.

Stage 3: Select a partner for the remaining person who comes first ALPHABETICALLY
There are 3 people remaining, so we can complete this stage in 3 ways.

Stage 4: Select a partner for the remaining person who comes first ALPHABETICALLY
There is 1 person remaining, so we can complete this stage in 1 way.

By the Fundamental Counting Principle (FCP), we can complete all 4 stages (and thus create 4 pairings) in (7)(5)(3)(1) ways (= 105 ways)

Answer: E
--------------------------

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MEDIUM
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Brent Hanneson - Creator of GMATPrepNow.com

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by Scott@TargetTestPrep » Fri Dec 15, 2017 7:19 am

lheiannie07 wrote:A group of 8 friends want to play doubles tennis. How many different ways can the group be divided into 4 teams of 2 people?

A. 420
B. 2520
C. 168
D. 90
E. 105

First, we need to select the groups:

Since we have 8 people, the first team can be formed in 8C2 = (8 x 7)/2! = 28 ways. Since there are now 6 people left, the second team can be selected in 6C2 = (6 x 5)/2! = 15 ways. Since there are 4 people left, the third team can be selected in 4C2 = (4 x 3)/2! = 6 ways. Since there are 2 people left, the final team can be selected in 2C2 = 1 way.

Thus, the total number of ways to select the 4 teams is 28 x 15 x 6 x 1 = 2520, if the order of selecting these teams matters. However, the order of selection doesn't matter, so we have to divide by 4! = 24. Thus, the total number of ways to select the teams when order doesn't matter is 2520/24 = 105.

Answer: E

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