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Permutations and combinations

Permutations and combinations

Posers and Puzzles

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Six roles are being cast for a school play. Fifteen students show up for audition. In how many ways can the roles be assigned?

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Originally posted by ErinR
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Six roles are being cast for a school play. Fifteen students show up for audition. In how many ways can the roles be assigned?
15*14*13*12*11*10 = 3 603 600

15 students could do the first role, 14 the second etc.

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Originally posted by ErinR
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Six roles are being cast for a school play. Fifteen students show up for audition. In how many ways can the roles be assigned?
Not enough information for an definite answer.

For starters, are there any roles which are gender-specific? Even if there are some which are not strictly male or female, rom-coms like Othello do require at least a gender-based casting: having Iago and Desdemona be different genders may work, these days, but does require some explanation at least.
And then, in many plays there are minor roles which could be done by one player with a costume change, and in some cases would be better for it...

Richard

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If this is homework, you probably have to use the formula for permutations to get full marks.

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15!
__________=number of possible roles. (which is the same answer as above, i know)
(15-6)!
if gender does not matter.