Question

The principal would like to assemble a committee of 7 students from the 15-member student council. How many different committees can be chosen?

Answer 1

6,435

Explanation:

The number of different committees that can be chosen can be calculated using the combination formula, also known as "n choose k," which calculates the number of ways to choose k items from a set of n items without regard to the order.

In this case, the principal wants to assemble a committee of 7 students from a student council of 15 members. Therefore, the number of different committees that can be chosen is given by the formula:

C(15, 7) = 15! / (7! * (15-7)!)

Calculating this expression gives:

C(15, 7) = 15! / (7! * 8!)

Simplifying further:

C(15, 7) = (15 * 14 * 13 * 12 * 11 * 10 * 9) / (7 * 6 * 5 * 4 * 3 * 2 * 1)

C(15, 7) = 6435

Therefore, there are 6,435 different committees that can be chosen from the 15-member student council.