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A club contains the president, the secretary, and 8 other members. The club is asked to send a group of 4 representatives to a conference. Calculate the number of different ways in which the group can be formed if it μst contain both the president and the secretary.

a) 8 ways
b) 56 ways
c) 72 ways
d) 84 ways

1 Answer

7 votes

Final answer:

To determine the number of ways to form a group of 4 representatives including the president and the secretary from a club of 10 members, we calculate the combinations of choosing 2 additional members from the 8 remaining, resulting in 28 ways.

Step-by-step explanation:

The student has asked how many different ways a group of 4 representatives can be formed from a club of 10 members (1 president, 1 secretary, and 8 other members), if the group must contain both the president and the secretary.

Since both the president and the secretary must be in the group, we have 2 positions filled and need to choose 2 more representatives from the remaining 8 members. This is a combinatorial problem, specifically a combination since the order in which we choose the members does not matter.

Thus, we calculate the number of combinations of the remaining 2 positions from the 8 members using the combination formula:

C(n, k) = n! / [k! * (n-k)!]

Where n is the total number of items, and k is the number of items to choose.

Apply this formula:

C(8, 2) = 8! / [2! * (8-2)!] = (8 * 7) / (2 * 1) = 28 ways

Therefore, there are 28 ways to form a group of 4 representatives that include both the president and the secretary.

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