Question

In how many ways could you choose two different letters from the letters c, o, u, n, t? a. 60 ways b. 20 ways c. 120 ways d. 10 ways

Answer 1

There are 5 letters.

You can pick from 5 letters for the first letter.

You can pick from 4 for the second letter.

5 * 4 = 20

This gives you a total of 20 different 2-letter words.

If you were creating different 2-letter words, then the order would matter, and the answer would be 20.

In your case, you are just asked to pick two different letters, so if you pick a "c" followed by an "o", it's the same as if you had picked an "o" followed by a "c", since you still have the same two letters, "c" and "o", so you must divide 20 by 2 to get 10.

Answer: d. 10 ways

Answer 2

Hello!

We have a 1/5 chance of selecting a certain letter, and we do this two times. Therefore, we divide below.

1/5/2=1/10

Therefore, there are D) 10 ways.

I hope this helps!