Talk:ENGSCI213:Probability

Question about the card problem: How come you've used permutations and not combinations? Is a hand of A, Q, 5 not the same as the hand 5, A, Q ?

hey sam

I didn't see this page until today. I was only looking at the article page =p. Yeah ummm I don't know why I used permutations either lol. I think it was because when I was doing the number of ways of choosing 2 kinds and a Ace... I started off going:

4 * 3 * 4 * 44 * 43 * ...

Because for a king we have 4 choices, then only 3 kings left. Then 4 choices for the ace. Then 52-8 = 44 choices for the next, 43 for the next and so on until we have 13 cards.

I think I assumed that these permutations will cancel out. As in, the repeats won't make a difference when you divide them, so using combinations will give the same answer... Well thats what I thought

Rwan064 15:15, 9 June 2008 (NZST)