Problem: The U.S. presidential elections are decided by the Electoral College, i

Question

Problem:

The U.S. presidential elections are decided by the Electoral College, in which each of the 50 states, plus the District of Columbia, gives all of its votes to a candidate.

Question:

Ignoring the number of votes each state has in the Electoral College, but including all possible combinations (or arrangements) of states that could be won by either candidate, how many outcomes are possible in the Electoral College if there are two candidates?

Remember that the states that can be won by a candidate form a subset of all the states.

Explanation / Answer

There are 50 states and one district of columbia which casts vote

Hence there are 51 votes

There are 2 possible canditates for each vote

Hence each state has 2 options

Hence the total number of possibilities = 2 x 2 x ...51 times... x 2 = 2^51 possibilities

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