A trumpet section includes four musicians. If they hold an audition to determine chair order within the section, and there are to be no ties, how many distinct chair orders can result?  Answers
A) 240 B) 125 C) 120 D) 100 E) 24
We have a word problem using permutations. We must identify the number of total items in the group. There are four possible musicians who could be placed in the first chair, three possible musicians for the second, two for the third, one for the fourth. To determine the number of possible orderings, we multiply these numbers, which we can express as 4!. Now 4! = (4)(3)(2)(1) = 24=24
<result>E</result>
A trumpet section includes four musicians. If they hold an audition to determine chair order within the section, and there are to be no ties, how many distinct chair orders can result?