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9) When gambling on any type of racing, a trifecta bet is one where you need to

ID: 3126331 • Letter: 9

Question

9) When gambling on any type of racing, a trifecta bet is one where you need to pick the first three finishers of the race in the exact order in order to win the bet and a boxed trifecta bet is one where you need to pick the first three finishers in the race in any order to win. In the 1956 Kentucky Derby a total of 17 horses raced and if a person decided to make a bet on the race:

a) How many different possible trifecta bets could they have made?

b) How many different possible boxed trifecta bets could they have made?

Explanation / Answer

a)

As order does matter, we use permutations.

There are 17P3 = 17!/14! = 4080 ways [ANSWER]

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b)

As order does not matter, we use combinations.

There are 17C3 = 17!/(14!3!) = 680 ways [ANSWER]