Q. The principal would like to assemble a committee of 6 students from the 14-member student council. How many different committees can be chosen?Answer:
Identify Problem Type: Identify the type of problem and the formula to use.We need to find the number of ways to choose 6 students out of 14 without regard to order. This is a combination problem, and the formula for combinations is: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.
Apply Formula: Apply the formula to the given numbers.We have n=14 (total members) and k=6 (members to choose for the committee). Plugging these values into the formula gives us:C(14,6)=(6!(14−6)!)14!=(6!8!)14!
Calculate Factorials: Calculate the factorials and simplify the expression.14! means 14×13×12×11×10×9×8!6! means 6×5×4×3×2×18! cancels out in the numerator and denominator.So, we have:C(14,6)=6×5×4×3×2×114×13×12×11×10×9
Perform Calculations: Perform the calculations.We can simplify the fraction by canceling common factors before multiplying to avoid large numbers:C(14,6)=6×5×4×3×2×114×13×12×11×10×9C(14,6)=5×2×17×13×3×11×10×3C(14,6)=7×13×11×10×3×3C(14,6)=3003
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