Combinatoricsis the field of mathematics that involves counting or enumeration.

AGREE or DISAGREE?

1. Agree
2. Disagree

Combinatorics includes the counting techniques known as combinations and permutations.

AGREE or DISAGREE?

1. Agree
2. Disagree

Is it reasonable to claim that combinations are ordered arrangements?

NO or YES?

1. Yes
2. No

Rather,combinationsareunorderedarrangements.

AGREE or DISAGREE?

1. Agree
2. Disagree

Is it reasonable to claim that permutations are unordered arrangements?

NO or YES?

1. Yes
2. No

Rather,permutationsareorderedarrangements.

AGREE or DISAGREE?

1. Agree
2. Disagree

Acombinationcan be describe as anunorderedarrangementofnitems arrangedrat a time.

NO or YES?

1. Yes
2. No

Apermutationcan be describe as anorderedarrangementofnitems arrangedrat a time.

NO or YES?

1. Yes
2. No

Acombinationofnthings takenrat a timecan be written symbolically as the following, among other notation:_nC_rorC(n,r)

NO or YES?

1. Yes
2. No

Apermutationofnthings takenrat a timecan be written symbolically as the following, among other notation:_nP_rorP(n,r)

NO or YES?

1. Yes
2. No

A current spreadsheet function to compute a combination is thefollowingmnemonic:COMBIN.

In other words,in order to compute a combination using a spreadsheet, start typing the following function into an empty cell:

=COMBIN(...

NO or YES?

1. Yes
2. No

Before continuing, ahelpfulmathematicalfunctionis the factorial.It is a special product of every counting number, from the indicated number down to one.If the number of interest is represented byn, then the function is expressed asn factorial.

AGREE or DISAGREE?

1. Agree
2. Disagree

If the number of interest is represented byn, then the function is represented asn!.

AGREE or DISAGREE?

1. Agree
2. Disagree

Another way to think about a factorial is as a the number of ordered arrangements ofnitems in a line or row.

AGREE or DISAGREE?

1. Agree
2. Disagree

The factorial function currently available in spreadsheets is the mnemonic,FACT.In other words, in order to compute a factorial, start typing the following into an empty cell:

=FACT( ...

AGREE or DISAGREE?

1. Agree
2. Disagree

For example,4!represents the ordered number of arrangements of four items in a line or row.What is the numerical value of4!?

Answer:

Verify that, when using a spreadsheet, ...

=FACT(4)

yields an answer equivalent to 4x3x2x1.

NO or YES?

1. Yes
2. No

Compute0!

Answer: