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permutation or a combination question ?!

Problem Solving — algebra and arithmetic (GMAT Focus Edition)
Expert replies
by shahrat » Wed Apr 21, 2010 11:46 am
helloooooo everybody

can any one plz help me in getting the lgic and answer to this question

before starting a game , a teacher must divide her 10 students into teams of three students ( where order does not matter ) and then assign the remaining student the role of the referee . how many different assignments can she make for the 10 students?

i will appreciate the help
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Source: — Quantitative Reasoning |

by Stuart@KaplanGMAT » Wed Apr 21, 2010 12:49 pm
shahrat wrote:helloooooo everybody

can any one plz help me in getting the lgic and answer to this question

before starting a game , a teacher must divide her 10 students into teams of three students ( where order does not matter ) and then assign the remaining student the role of the referee . how many different assignments can she make for the 10 students?

i will appreciate the help
Hi!

Let's attack this question in 3 parts: choosing team 1, choosing team 2 and choosing team 3.

Since order doesn't matter for our choices, we start with combinations:

Team 1: 10 people available, choosing 3, so:

10C3 = 10!/3!7! = 10*9*8/3*2*1 = 720/6 = 120

Team 2: 7 people left, choosing 3, so:

7C3 = 7!/3!4! = 7*6*5/3*2*1 = 7*5 = 35

Teach 3: 4 people left, choosing 3, so:

4C3 = 4!/3!1! = 4/1 = 4

Ref: 1 person left, choosing 1, so only 1 choice!

Whenever we make multiple selections, we multiply the possibilities, giving us:

120 * 35 * 4 * 1 = some big number.

However, that big number isn't the final answer to the question (that's why I haven't done the math yet). We need to recognize that we've counted some groups multiple times.

Here's what I mean:

let's call our 10 students ABCDEFGHIJ.

By our counting method, we could have:

Team 1: ABC
Team 2: DEF
Team 3: GHI
ref: J.

We could also have:

Team 1: DEF
Team 2: GHI
Team 3: ABC
Ref: J.

Now, these are identical assignments, but we've counted them twice. So, we need to factor out our multiples.

Since there are 3 teams, there are 3!=6 different ways to arrange them (123, 132, 213, 231, 312, 321). Therefore, we've counted every assignment 6 times.

So, the final answer to the question is:

(120 * 35 * 4 * 1)/6

= 20 * 35 * 4

= 700 * 4

= 2800

That's a lot of teams! I hope the teacher has a lot of spare time.
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by shahrat » Wed Apr 21, 2010 1:47 pm
thanks a million Stuart!

it was really helpful
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