how would you interpret this question? (1 Viewer)

[ohexploitable]

carlo has these 8 tiles: N Z M I G W K S

carlo randomly chooses four tiles, how many distinct ways can he arrange them?

i'll give the answer later to remove any external influences

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this was the only thing that prevented me from a perfect 84/84 in my trials

 

[Robin1]

What trial did you do?

carlo has these 8 tiles: N Z M I G W K S

carlo randomly chooses four tiles, how many distinct ways can he arrange them?

i'll give the answer later to remove any external influences

-----

this was the only thing that prevented me from a perfect 84/84 in my trials

 

[blackops23]

i DOn't get it? Isn't it just 8P4 = 1680 ways?

 

[Hermes1]

is the answer 1680?

 

[SpiralFlex]

Is this a trick?



What's the answer?

 

[Alkanes]

Is it 1680??

 

[xV1P3R]

Ahh I think I can see where the ambiguity arises.

"carlo randomly chooses four tiles, how many distinct ways can he arrange them?"

It sounds like the choosing has already happened, so all you are doing is calculating how many ways he can arrange the four tiles that he has.

so 4*3*2*1?

Otherwise if you take into account choosing it should be 1680 as others have pointed out.

 

[ohexploitable]

Ahh I think I can see where the ambiguity arises.

"carlo randomly chooses four tiles, how many distinct ways can he arrange them?"

It sounds like the choosing has already happened, so all you are doing is calculating how many ways he can arrange the four tiles that he has.

this

1/3 of the class got the same answer as me (4!)

rest of class and teacher got 8P4

 

[Alkanes]

lol even the teacher got it wrong?

 

[ohexploitable]

lol even the teacher got it wrong?

no that was the correct answer

i was pointing out the ambiguity of the question

i don't really care tbh, i just want to say that i got 100%

 

[Alkanes]

Oh haha yea some perms and combs questions are ambiguous and plays with your mind.

 

[SpiralFlex]

Which paper did you sit?

 

[ohexploitable]

Which paper did you sit?

pretty sure it was indie

but some questions were changed because we haven't finished course yet

 

[SpiralFlex]

pretty sure it was indie

but some questions were changed because we haven't finished course yet

I don't think that question was in the 2011 Independent paper.

 

[Hermes1]

I don't think that question was in the 2011 Independent paper.

he said some questions were altered.

 

[SpiralFlex]

he said some questions were altered.

Yes. Just pointing it out.

 

[someth1ng]

I would say that 4! is the correct answer since "them" suggests the four tiles that were picked, hence, order 4 tiles. If 1680 was the answer, it should be something like, "How many 4 letter arrangements can be made from these tiles?"

The way it was worded is very poor and you probably won't see something like that in the HSC.

 

[RealiseNothing]

Mr.Le and his terrible questions.