Question

From 4 Republicans and 3 Democrats, find the number of committees of 3 that can be formed with 2 Republicans and 1 Democrat?

Answer 1

Answer:

Think of it this way. You have 4 choices for the first Republican. Then since one is placed on the committee you now have 3 choices for the next. So for the republican spots you have 4 * 3 choices. But this counts Trump, Pence and Pence, Trump as two different committees. So we have to divide by 2 so that they are seen as the same committee. And now we just have to multiply by the number of choices for the the democrat spot which is 3. So 4*3/2*3 = 18.