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Printjmc
prealgebra intermediate
Problem
I have twenty balls numbered 1 through 20 in a bin. In how many ways can I select 2 balls, if the order in which I draw them doesn't matter?
Solution
If the order the balls are selected matters, there are 20 choices for the first selection and 19 choices for the second selection. However, counts each pair of balls twice, once for each possible order in which they can be selected. So, we must divide by , , to get .
Final answer
190