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If you randomly place your 6 books on the bookshelf, what is the probability that they will end up in alphabetical order? Round your answer to 6 decimal places as needed.

User Kingdango
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1 Answer

6 votes

Answer: 0.001389

Work Shown

1/720 = 0.001389 approximately

Step-by-step explanation

There's one correct alphabetical ordering of a collection of 6 books. That explains the 1 in the numerator.

The 720 in the denominator refers to the fact there are 6*5*4*3*2*1 = 720 different permutations of rearranging those 6 books. Another way to arrive at this value is to use the nPr formula with n = 6 and r = 6.

User LukyVj
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