How many different 4-letter arrangements can be made from the word GEOMETRY including at least one E

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So I stumbled upon a question: "How many different 4-letter arrangements can be made from the word GEOMETRY including at least one E?" How to solve such type of questions?

Best Answer

We have two possibilities: one letter E or two.

In the case of one E, there are $4$ possible positions for this first letter, and then 6 possibilities for filling the next letter (picking from the remaining letters, and excluding the other E), and then 5 possibilities, and then 4. So we have $4 \cdot 6 \cdot 5 \cdot 4 = 480$.

In the case of two Es, there are $6$ possible positions for these first two letters. We can calculate this as ${4 \choose 2} = 6$ or just by intuitively observing that there are $4$ possibilities for the first E and then 3 for the second, but dividing by two since we don’t care about the order. Then $6$ more possibilities for the third letter, and then $5$. So we have $6 \cdot 6 \cdot 5 = 180$.

So our final total is $480 + 180 = 660$ possible arrangements.