Permutation or combination?

Shinnola

New member
Joined
Apr 30, 2007
Messages
11
If you calculate the number of different ways five of the 31 students could be chosen to put problems 1,2,3,4,and 5 on the board, is this a number of combinations or a number of permutations?

At first I thought it was a number of permutations because order in which the numbers are arranged matters, but then I thought it was a combination because they are only using 5 of the 31 students. Which is right?
 
It is clearly a permutation problem.
You are counting the number of one-to-one functions from a set five to a set of thirty one. Each problem is assigned to exactly one student.
 
Top