Question

An insurance agent has a list of 5 prospects and decides to telephone 3 of the prospects today and the other 2 prospects tomorrow. In how many different ways can the agent telephone the prospects?

ways

Answer 1

To find the number of different ways the agent can telephone the prospects, you can use the combination formula. The agent is choosing 3 prospects out of 5 for today and 2 prospects out of the remaining 2 for tomorrow.

The number of ways to choose 3 prospects out of 5 for today is given by:

C(5, 3) = 5! / (3!(5 - 3)!) = 10 ways

The number of ways to choose 2 prospects out of the remaining 2 for tomorrow is simply:

C(2, 2) = 1 way

Now, to find the total number of different ways the agent can telephone the prospects today and tomorrow, multiply the two results:

10 ways (for today) * 1 way (for tomorrow) = 10 ways

So, the agent can telephone the prospects in 10 different ways.