A basketball team has 10 players. Before each game, the coach picks 2 of those players to carry the team's water jug.How many different groups of 2 players can the coach pick?
Q. A basketball team has 10 players. Before each game, the coach picks 2 of those players to carry the team's water jug.How many different groups of 2 players can the coach pick?
Define Combination Formula: To determine the number of different groups of 2 players that can be picked from 10 players, we need to use the combination formula, which is defined as C(n,k)=k!(n−k)!n!, where n is the total number of items, k is the number of items to choose, and “!” denotes factorial.In this case, n=10 (total players) and k=2 (players to be picked).
Calculate Factorial of n: First, we calculate the factorial of n, which is 10! (10 factorial).10!=10×9×8×7×6×5×4×3×2×1
Calculate Factorial of k: Next, we calculate the factorial of k, which is 2! (2 factorial).2!=2×1
Calculate Factorial of (n−k): We also need to calculate the factorial of (n−k), which is (10−2)! or 8! (8 factorial).8!=8×7×6×5×4×3×2×1
Apply Combination Formula: Now we can plug these values into the combination formula:C(10,2)=(2!(10−2)!)10!C(10,2)=(2!×8!)10!
Simplify Factorials: We simplify the factorials by canceling out the common terms in 10! and 8!:C(10,2)=2×1×8!10×9×8!C(10,2)=2×110×9
Find Number of Combinations: Perform the division and multiplication to find the number of combinations:C(10,2)=210×9C(10,2)=290C(10,2)=45