Hugo and Viviana work in an office with ten other coworkers. Out of these 12 workers, their boss needs to choose a group of five to work together on a project.

Suppose Hugo and Viviana absolutely refuse, under any circumstances, to work together. Under this restriction, how many different working groups of five can be formed?

Question

Hugo and Viviana work in an office with ten other coworkers. Out of these 12 workers, their boss needs to choose a group of five to work together on a project.

Suppose Hugo and Viviana absolutely refuse, under any circumstances, to work together. Under this restriction, how many different working groups of five can be formed?

anonymous · Answer

Its Discrete Mathematics fyi DemolisionWolf

anonymous · Answer

Hugo and Viviana work in an office with ten other coworkers.
12 workers, 
(thus n=12)

their boss needs to choose a group of five 
(thus r=5)

Suppose Hugo and Viviana absolutely refuse, under any circumstances, to work together.
(this line, im still thinking about.)

But we want to use the 'combination probability' formula

anonymous · Answer

whats your idea on this part? "Suppose Hugo and Viviana absolutely refuse, under any circumstances, to work together."

up to this point, i think n=12 and r = 5, but this phrase is messing me up..

anonymous · Answer

Actually what I'm thinking is that 12-2 = 10, so 12^10 + 5^10

anonymous · Answer

Unfortunately, my homework still says it wrong

anonymous · Answer

have you used the combination formula? like... n!/ (n-r)!

anonymous · Answer

I just used recursive math to assume my solution, I think I'm either lost or on the wrong track, I will try to plug in those numbers to that equation & see if it works tho

anonymous · Answer

did it work?

anonymous · Answer

oh maybe it's n=12-1=11 so we get rid of one of the two bosses but not both?

anonymous · Answer

I did 12!/(12-5) = 479001600/7 = 68428800 which is wrong

anonymous · Answer

I can try it with 11, hold on

anonymous · Answer

try this one, I think I had the combination wrong before. and do n=11, r=5
n!/(r(n-r)!)

anonymous · Answer

11! = 39916800/30 = 1330560 but still incorrect, I have a feeling since Hugo & vivian cannot work together, I will try 10!

anonymous · Answer

don't for get the ! for the denominator term

anonymous · Answer

Omg completely missed that, in that case my calculation was incorrect, hold on

anonymous · Answer

11! = 39916800/2.652528598121911e+32 = 1.50485842e-39

anonymous · Answer

Not correct tho

anonymous · Answer

hmm.. sorry i'm not sure what else to try :(

anonymous · Answer

Np I really appreciate all your help man