[Guest]

You have 5 different colored wires: black, red, blue, green, and white. They must be connected to a terminal strip marked 1-2-3-4-5. How many different combinations of colored wires to numbered terminals are possible. Only one wire to one terminal. What is the quick formula to fiqure this out.

[Guest]

would it be 640

and the quick way to work it out is 5!

[Guest]

would it be 640

and the quick way to work it out is 5!

And andreay shouldn't be wrong. However, if that is the case.

My answer is 1 because if electrical wires must be hooked-up, they must be hooked up in a way that things will work and thus there should only be 1 possible way.

Ie; a + wire cant go to a ground, otherwise the unit wouldn't work.

If we are looking at combinations and ignoring that fact, then andreay is right imho.

[Guest]

1·2·...

[Nikyma]

125

[Guest]

would it be 640

and the quick way to work it out is 5!

5! is 120......

Since you said combinations specifically and not permutaions then the answer is 1.

nCr = n!

------

r! * (n-r)!

Therefore

5C5 = 5! 120

------- = --------- = 1

5! * 0! 120

But if you meant permutaions then yeah it's 5! or 120.

Did I just do someone's homework?

[Guest]

5 * 4 * 3 * 2 * 1, or 5!

5! = 120...there are 120 possibilities

Edited April 10, 2008 by Alchameth

[Guest]

The formula is 5!

the answer is 120

[Guest]

Did I just do someone's homework?

Oh man, thats genius. I know what I'm do with my homework in the future.

[Guest]

125

3 sir!

[Guest]

[Actualy it is 24 4X3X2X1=24 because white is not a color, it is the absence of color.

[Guest]

If white is the absence of colour - what is black, depends on light or paint, but to see colour you need light!

White is all colours is it not and your OP states cloured wires not lights?

Me missing something again probably!

Can you explain pleasse, and could you please not post an answer so quick - it can run on and have a hint or simple redirection.

Grateful if you do explain

Edited April 11, 2008 by Lost in space

[Guest]

[Actualy it is 24 4X3X2X1=24 because white is not a color, it is the absence of color.

Black is the absence of color, not white

[Guest]

Black is the absence of color, not white

Black is the result of absorbed light therefore no reflected light reaches the eye, black in terms of a physical medium will in fact have similar properties appearance wise (lit) no pun re lit(light)

Edited April 11, 2008 by Lost in space

[Guest]

Did anyone ever take art class? The first think I learned If you mix all of the primary colors, red-yellow-blue it turns black.

White is this________ nothing there, NO color.

[Guest]

Did anyone ever take art class? The first think I learned If you mix all of the primary colors, red-yellow-blue it turns black.

White is this________ nothing there, NO color.

I thought red, yellow, and blue made brown. . . . .

[Guest]

You're all kinda right AND wrong about black and white thing. And I want to help So here's a link:

http://www.rgbworld.com/color.html

White is all the colors combined or the absence of all colors -- it depends on if you are using an additive or subtractive color system.

In an additive system (think light and computer screens), the main colors are red, green, and blue. And all the colors combine to be white. If you had three flashlights where one gave off red light, one gave off green light, and the other gave off blue light - when you shined them all in the same place, the light would be white.

In a subtractive system (think paint), the main colors are actually cyan, magenta & yellow (for printer ink) or as we learned back in art class -- red, yellow & blue (for paint). In this system, the colors all combine to be black (technically it's really a muddy brown, which is why printers also have black ink) and white is actually the absence of all colors.

Edited April 11, 2008 by KarenClark

[bonanova]

KarenClark has it.

Pigments [reflective] subtract light by selective absorbance.

Light [radiative] is additive.

Think of the display you're looking at right now.

White's RGB [red/green/blue] value is FF/FF/FF [hex] or 256/256/256 decimal.

256 is the maximum value for displays.

Guess what the the RGB value for black is ... 000000.

That would qualify as absence of color if that term even has meaning.

Black is absence of LIGHT.

Absence of COLOR is more meaningfully defined as NEUTRALITY of color - equal amounts of RGB on a display produce shades of [colorless] grey.

However, PinWizard could still argue that one of the wires is BLACK so his answer of 24 could still be justified.

Except, one could argue that BOTH black and white are neutral, therefore colorless, then the number would be 6

Except for the fact that the OP says ...

You have 5 different colored wires: black, red, blue, green, and white. They must be connected to a terminal strip marked 1-2-3-4-5. How many different combinations of colored wires to numbered terminals are possible. Only one wire to one terminal. What is the quick formula to fiqure this out.

Sorry PW, you've given away the claim of 4 colored wires in the answer

if you specify 5 colored wires in the puzzle.

Creative, tho... points for that.

[bonanova]

You have 5 different colored wires: black, red, blue, green, and white.

They must be connected to a terminal strip marked 1-2-3-4-5.

How many different combinations of colored wires to numbered terminals are possible.

Only one wire to one terminal.

What is the quick formula to fiqure this out.

The answer in either case is 120. It's never 24.

[1] include all 5 wires - which is the consensus correct thing to do.

Answer is 5! = 120 ways.

[2] exclude the white one if you believe it has no color. Or exclude the black one. Whatever.

Take all 120 combinations from case [1] and remove the white wire.

The remaining four wires are still connected in unique combinations - 120 in all.

[bonanova]

[Actualy it is 24 4X3X2X1=24 because white is not a color, it is the absence of color.

Nope.

Take away the white wire if you want, there are still 120

combinations of the other 4 wires to the 5 numbered connectors.

[Guest]

Regarding paint, pencils, crayons etc. primary colours are red, yellow and blue

TONES : black white makes make colurs dark or light when added, changing hue.

Edited April 12, 2008 by Lost in space