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counting and probability senior
Problem
At one of George Washington's parties, each man shook hands with everyone except his spouse, and no handshakes took place between women. If married couples attended, how many handshakes were there among these people?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
Solution
We split this problem into two cases: A) The number of ways that men can shake hands with other men B) The number of ways that the men can shake hands with the other women (excluding their spouse). A) Since there are men, the number of handshakes between only men is . B) Since there are men and women (excluding each man's spouse), there are ways. Adding this up, we get , so the answer is
Final answer
C