A group of eleven seniors, seven juniors, five sophomores, and four freshmen must select a committee of four. How many committees are possible if the committee must contain (a) one person from each class, (b) any mixture of the classes, and (c) exactly two seniors.

These story problems always get me, but how do you compute combinations from several categories?

Question

A group of eleven seniors, seven juniors, five sophomores, and four freshmen must select a committee of four. How many committees are possible if the committee must contain (a) one person from each class, (b) any mixture of the classes, and (c) exactly two seniors.

These story problems always get me, but how do you compute combinations from several categories?

anonymous · Answer

By multiplying together the number of possibilites from each

anonymous · Answer

Of course... that makes perfect sense, thank you.