When Julia's parents return from Jamaica, they will give her a bracelet made of eight different sea shells with no visible clasp. How many different bracelets could have been made with these same shells? Why is the information about the clasp relevant?
+130514 The answer with no clasp is = 5040.....the reason why is the we have a circle where the position of one of the shells is "set"......so we can arrange the others in 7! ways
With a clasp the answer is 40320, since when the clasp is undone and the braclet is laid out in a linear fashion, we have 8 ways to choose which shell goes first in the chain, 7 ways to choose the second, etc.
+130514 The answer with no clasp is = 5040.....the reason why is the we have a circle where the position of one of the shells is "set"......so we can arrange the others in 7! ways
With a clasp the answer is 40320, since when the clasp is undone and the braclet is laid out in a linear fashion, we have 8 ways to choose which shell goes first in the chain, 7 ways to choose the second, etc.
