In how many ways can 5 persons occupy 3 vacant seats?

To find: number of arrangements of 5 people in 3 seats.


Consider three seats A B C


Now, place A can be occupied by any 1 person out of 5.


Then place B can be occupied by any 1 person from remaining 4 and for C there are 3 people to occupy the seat.


Formula:


Number of permutations of n distinct objects among r different places, where repetition is not allowed, is


P(n,r) = n!/(n-r)!


Therefore, permutation of 5 different objects in 3 places is


P(5,3) =


= = = 60.


Therefore, the number of possible solutions is 60.


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