[Math] The number of quadrilaterals formed from collinear and non-collinear points.

combinationscombinatoricspermutations

There are $25$ points on a plane of which $7$ are collinear .
How many quadrilaterals can be formed from these points ?

I did this $^{25}C_{4}-^{7}C_{4}=12615$ quadrilaterals.

But the book is giving answer $^{25}C_{4}-^{7}C_{4}-^{7}C_{3}\times ^{18}C_{1}=11985$ quadrilaterals..

I don't know what is the correct idea .

I look for a short and simple way.

I have studied maths up to $12$th grade.

Best Answer

Your idea is very close to correct. A quadrilateral is formed by $4$ points, where at most $2$ may be colinear. Thus, we have $$ \underbrace{^{25} C_4}_{\text{ choose four points}} - \underbrace{^{7} C_4}_{\text{ subtract out ways to pick four colinear points}} - \underbrace{^{7} C_3 \cdot ^{18} C_1 }_{\text{ subtract out ways to pick three colinear points}}$$

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