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There are 5 letters and 5 addressed envelopes.The number of ways in which the letters can be placed in the envelopes so that none of them goes into the right envelope is

A. 22
B. 44
C. 120
D. 119

User Riaz
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1 Answer

5 votes

Final answer:

The number of ways in which 5 letters can be placed into 5 addressed envelopes so that none of the letters goes into the correct envelope is 44, which is a derangement problem denoted by !5.

Step-by-step explanation:

The problem is to determine the number of ways in which 5 letters can be placed into 5 addressed envelopes so that none of the letters goes into its corresponding envelope. This is a problem of derangements, also known as a permutation where no element appears in its original position. The derangement of n objects is denoted by !n or D(n). The formula for derangement is given by:

!n = n! ∑ ((-1)^k/k!), where the sum is taken from k=0 to n.

For n=5, the calculation goes as follows:

!5 = 5! ∑ ((-1)^k/k!)
= 5! ((-1)^0/0! + (-1)^1/1! + (-1)^2/2! + (-1)^3/3! + (-1)^4/4! + (-1)^5/5!)
= 120 (1 - 1 + 1/2 - 1/6 + 1/24 - 1/120)
= 120 (1 - 1 + 0.5 - 0.1666 + 0.041666 - 0.008333)
= 120 (0.366833)
= 44

Thus, the answer is B. 44.

User Eltiare
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