55.0k views
5 votes
how many different combinations of six people can sit in four chairs? assume one person sits in each chair

1 Answer

4 votes

We want to choose 4 people and we have 6 people to choose from. This is a combination of 6, 4 by 4. Also called six choose four.

The following formula:


_rC_n=(n!)/(r!(n-r)!)

Is the combination of
r objects choosen from a total of
n. It's
n choose
r.

For our problem, we just need to compute the following:


_4C_6=(6!)/(4!(6-4)!)=(6*5*4!)/(4!2!) =(6*5)/(2*1) =15

Thus


\boxed{_4C_6=15}

Therefore the answer is 15 different combinations

User Martin Tilsted
by
5.0k points