Possible Permutations for 6-Position Car Plate: Numbers and Alphabets (ABC 123)

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Homework Help Overview

The problem involves calculating the number of possible permutations for a 6-position car plate consisting of 3 alphabetic characters and 3 numeric digits, with the restriction that no character or digit can be repeated within a permutation.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Assumption checking

Approaches and Questions Raised

  • Participants discuss the factorial approach to calculate permutations for both numbers and letters separately, questioning whether the initial calculations correctly exclude repeated characters.

Discussion Status

Some participants confirm the correctness of the original poster's approach, while others seek clarification on whether the calculations account for the exclusion of repeated characters in the permutations.

Contextual Notes

There is an ongoing discussion about the implications of allowing repeated characters and how that would affect the total number of permutations.

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Homework Statement



Lets say a car plate has 6 positions, three of them are numbers and 3 of them are alphabetic.
e.g. ABC 123. I need to figure out how many possible permutations can occur using all the numbers and alphabets BUT i cannot use any number or alfabet twice in an permutation eg. AAB 123 or ABC 112 is forbidden.


Homework Equations





The Attempt at a Solution



first i split the problem, first the numbers then the alfabet:

NUMBERS:
so N1 is the number of numbers i can use which is 10 obviously. 0-9
K is the number of positions which is 3.

N1!/(N1-K)=10!/(10-3)!

ALFABET:
so N2 is the number of alfabets which is 26, K is the number of positions 3.

N2!/(N2-K)!=26!/(26-3)!

The ANSWER:

(N1!/(N1-K))*(N2!/(N2-K)!) = (10!/(10-3)!)*(26!/(26-3)!)

is the answer correct?
 
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That is correct, assuming every car plate has to use 3 letters and 3 digits. You can calculate that number as a final result.
 
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mfb said:
That is correct, assuming every car plate has to use 3 letters and 3 digits. You can calculate that number as a final result.

thanks, does the answer exclude the permutations where the same number or digit happens in all three slots? e.g. AAA 123 or ABC 111 ?
 
ZeroPivot said:
thanks, does the answer exclude the permutations where the same number or digit happens in all three slots? e.g. AAA 123 or ABC 111 ?
Yes, what you have is $$3! \cdot{10 \choose 3} \times 3! \cdot {26 \choose 3}$$ which means, in the first term you select 3 distinct objects from the group of size 10. Each choice of three objects then has 6 possible rearrangements. Similar for the other term.

If you are allowed to use the same objects more than once, then clearly the number of possible permutations will increase.
 
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