math question! help

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1

<p>For some reason, I can never understand these perfectly well.</p>

<p>The Acme Plumbing company will send a team of 3 plumbers to work on a certain job. The company has 4 experienced plumbers and 4 trainees. If a team consists of 1 experienced plumber and 2 trainees, how many different such teams are possible?</p>

<p>Why would you not multiply 4 (# of experienced p) x 4 (# of trainees) x 3 (# of trainees after using one)?</p>

2

<p>Because doing that would be incorrect. If you’ve learned combinations before, this problem should be a cinch. You need 1 experienced plumber so the number so combinations is 4 for this group. The next group needs 2 trainees out of 4 possible trainees. The number of combinations is (4x3)/2=6. Thus, the answer is #GRP1x#GRP2=4x6=24.</p>