Can you give me an example of a combination in math?

Answer 1

Sure can.

You have three things, named 'A', 'B', and 'C'. How many ways can you

put them down on a table two-at-a-time ?

You can put them down in 6 different ways, like this:

AB

AC

BA

BC

CA

CB.

Those are called the "permutations" of 3 objects, taken two at a time.

But now, what if you say: I don't care which way they're arranged. As far as

I'm concerned, AB is the same as BA, AC is the same as CA, etc. How many

ways are there that are really different ?

Now there are only three different ways:

AB (or BA)

AC (or CA)

BC (or CB).

These are the "combinations" of 3 objects, taken two at a time. The members

of each combination can be arranged in different orders, but as long as it's the

same members, then all the orders are the same combination.