QuestionA coordinator will select 8 songs from a list of 9 songs to compose an event's musical entertainment lineup. How many different lineups are possible?
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Studdy Solution
STEP 1
What is this asking?
How many different ways can we pick 8 songs out of 9 to make a playlist, where the order of the songs matters?
Watch out!
The order of songs *does* matter here, so it's not a simple combination!
We're talking about a *lineup*, which means the order makes a difference.
STEP 2
1. Permutations
STEP 3
We're looking for the number of *permutations*, which means how many ways we can arrange a smaller group from a larger group, where order matters.
Think of it like picking the first song, then the second, and so on.
STEP 4
We have 9 choices for the first song.
After picking that one, we have 8 choices left for the second song.
Then 7 choices for the third, and so on, until we've picked 8 songs.
STEP 5
To get the **total number of lineups**, we **multiply** these numbers together.
This is because each choice of the first song can be paired with any choice of the second song, and so on.
This gives us .
This is called a *permutation*.
STEP 6
We can write this using the **permutation formula**: , where is the **total number of songs** and is the **number of songs we're choosing**.
In our case, and .
STEP 7
Let's **plug in the numbers**: .
STEP 8
.
STEP 9
There are a whopping **362,880** different possible lineups!
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