Question

Jasmine has 5 books that she wants to read. She wants to read the nonfiction book first and the mystery book last. In how many different orders can she read the books?

Answer 1

The different combinations is 9, since we can't rearrange the two novels.
I did 3*3 which equals 9.

Answer 2

We have been given that Jasmine has 5 books and she wants to read the nonfiction book first and the mystery book last. It means that the time of reading of 2 books are fixed. Now she has 3 books which she needs to arrange.

Now, we know that n different things can be arranged in n! ways. We can use this concept to find the number of different orders can she read the books.

Using the above concept, 3 books can be arranged in 3! ways.

`3!=1* 2* 3 \\ 3!=6`

Therefore, there are 6 different orders in which she can read the books.