[Math] Among a set of 5 black balls and 3 red balls, how many selections of 5 balls can be made such that at least 3 of them are black balls.

combinationspermutations

I did find the solution to my question, and it is evidently the correct solution. However, I am not really convinced with the solution. Can someone, please help me understand and clear my doubts on this please?

The solution I found:
Selecting at least 3 black balls from a set of 5 black balls in a total selection of 5 balls can be

3 B and 2 R

4 B and 1 R and

5 B and 0 R balls.

Therefore, our solution expression looks like this.
5C3 * 3C2 + 5C4 * 3C1 + 5C5 * 3C0 = 46 ways .

My Doubt:
5C3 – This means, there are 10 ways to select 3 black balls from 5 black balls, correct?
But, aren't all the 10 ways same? Since all the balls are black and identical? How can there be 10 ways to select 3 balls from identically 5 black balls?

Best Answer

Well, in my point of view, the problem asks for picking up 5 balls among the 8 there are (5 black and 3 red balls). The number ${{5}\choose{3}}$ means the different ways for selecting 3 balls from 5 no matter if are black or red. When you multiply by the factor ${{3}\choose{2}}$ is when you are forcing that those 3 balls from the five to be black.

Hope this helps you .

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