Hi Melody: How would you approach this problem? Here is my thinking: A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K,L,M (13 letters). I'm thinking of leaving out the letter "A" and permute the other 12 letters as: 12 P 3 =1,320, 3-letter permutations. Or, should I compute 13 P 3 =1,716 3-letter permutations? Then simply append the letter "A" at the beginning or the end of each permutation, which would give 4-letter "words" and yet would NOT change the number of permutations. That would leave the number of permutations unchanged, whether it is 1,320 or 1,716, except that each permutation would now be a 4-letter "word" !
What do you think of this scheme? I value your opinion. Thanks.