Question

There are six wires which need to be attached to a circuit board. A robotic device will attach the wires. The wires can be attached in any order, and the production manager wishes to determine which order would be fastest for the robot to use.

Required:
Use the multiplication rule of counting to determine the number of possible sequences of assembly that must be tested.

Answer 1

There are 720 possible sequences of assembly that must be tested.

Explanation:

We are given that;

No. of wires needed to be attached to a circuit board = 6

We want to find the number of possible sequences of the assembly that must be tested.

From multiplication rule of counting;

Number of possible sequences of the assembly = 6!

1st selection of wire = 6 possible choices

2nd selection of wire = 5 possible choices

3rd selection of wire = 4 possible choices

4th selection of wire = 3 possible choices

5th selection of wire = 2 possible choices

6h selection of wire = 1 possible choice

Thus,

number of possible sequences = 6 × 5 × 4 × 3 × 2 × 1 = 720

Thus, there are 720 possible sequences of assembly that must be tested.