Good At Math? Please Help Solve These Statistics Problems!

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Metamorphasis555
Metamorphasis555 Posts: 224
in Chit-Chat
I can see in my book what the answer is but I don't really understand what particular steps they took to reach those answers. Any help with this would be much appreciated!

The Pep club is selling flower arrangements with a choice of 4 different kinds of flowers, 3 kinds of greenery, and with or without baby's breath. How many different flower arrangements do they offer?
(The answers is 24).

The athletic director has 6 trophies won by school teams this year, but only enough space in the trophy case to display 3 at a time. How many different ways can he display the trophies if order is important?
(The answer is 120).

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  • WhatAnAss
    WhatAnAss Posts: 1,598 Member
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    For the first one it will be...

    4x3x2
    =24

    you take the number of types of flowers x kinds of greenery x baby's breath or no baby's breath.

    The second one...

    There are 3 spots so...

    6C3 =20
    20 different ways of choosing 3 trophies on display
    having chosen 3 trophies there are 3! ways of arranging
    20*3!=120 different ways.
  • slimster1970
    slimster1970 Posts: 65 Member
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    That's not quite the right way of getting the second answer,

    Its 6 x 5 x 4 = 120

    Why?

    First slot you have 6 choices, there are no more and whichever way it goes you have a choice of 5 for the second slot. After picking your first 2 slots the possible choices are from the remaining 4. Had there been 4 slots the answer would have been 360 as the next choice is from 3.

    6 options x 5 options x 4 options for the OP
  • Bekahmardis
    Bekahmardis Posts: 602 Member
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    I have my MBA, but it's too early in the morning for this....my brain hurts now....
  • alisonlynn1976
    alisonlynn1976 Posts: 929 Member
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    Those aren't statistics problems.
    The Pep club is selling flower arrangements with a choice of 4 different kinds of flowers, 3 kinds of greenery, and with or without baby's breath. How many different flower arrangements do they offer?
    (The answers is 24).

    4 kinds of flowers x 3 kinds of greenery x 2 options for baby's breath ---> 4 x 3 x 2 = 24
    The athletic director has 6 trophies won by school teams this year, but only enough space in the trophy case to display 3 at a time. How many different ways can he display the trophies if order is important?
    (The answer is 120).

    6 x 5 x 4

    You start with 6 because that's how many things you have, and you go 3 steps because you're choosing 3 things. If there were 6 spots in the trophy case, the answer would be 6 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1

    Here is a website that explains more: http://www.mathsisfun.com . Search for combinations and permutations in the search box.
  • TR0berts
    TR0berts Posts: 7,739 Member
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    This is at least the 2nd thread OP has started like this.

    Please, MFP - do not do this person's homework for them. Help them, yes. But don't do the work for them.
  • Metamorphasis555
    Metamorphasis555 Posts: 224
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    Thanks so much for your help christy, slimster and alison! I really appreciate it! Those were a lot easier and more straight forward then I thought they'd be, especially the first one.

    Also, thanks for letting me know about the mathisfun.com site. I'll definitely be sure to check it out!

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