Finding all possible sums given 2 lists, matched one to one

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SUMMARY

The discussion focuses on calculating all possible sums from two lists of numbers, A: 8, 8, 9, 10, 7, 8 and B: 6, 5, 4, 3, 3, 3, using a one-to-one matching approach. The user seeks to understand how to account for permutations and repetitions in their calculations, noting that the total number of permutations is 720. However, due to repeated elements in the lists, the actual unique sums will be fewer. The user aims to implement this in a spreadsheet for easier computation.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of permutations and combinations
  • Familiarity with basic arithmetic operations
  • Knowledge of spreadsheet software (e.g., Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets)
  • Concept of handling duplicates in mathematical calculations
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  • Research how to calculate unique permutations with repeated elements
  • Learn about combinatorial mathematics and its applications
  • Explore spreadsheet functions for generating combinations and sums
  • Investigate algorithms for efficiently calculating sums from multiple lists
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mishima
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Hi, its been a while since I have thought about this type of math, and I can't really remember how to do this or what its even called. I have two lists of numbers:

A: 8, 8, 9, 10, 7, 8
B: 6, 5, 4, 3, 3, 3

I want to find all the different ways I can add elements from A with elements of B. For instance, just adding them vertically as they are here I could get one combination as:

C: 14, 13, 13, 13, 10, 11

When an element from a list is used, its gone. For example, if I added 10 from A and 6 from B, I can't use 6 again (or vice versa). Can anyone nudge me in the right direction?
 
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The number of ways you can pick an entry in the A list to be added to an entry in the B list is the number of permutations, which is n! This number will be reduced by the fact that many of the sums are the same, which feels like a hard problem to handle.
 
Ok, so 720 possibilities. I could've sworn there was a way to account for repeats but like I said it has been a while since I have touched on this style of thinking. Ultimately I am just trying to make a spreadsheet to crunch it all out.
 

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