How many ways can a committee of 3 be formed from 8 people?

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Q: How many ways can a committee of 3 be formed from 8 people?

Solution: The number of ways to form a committee is C(8,3) = 56.

Steps: 10

Step 1: Understand that we need to choose 3 people from a group of 8 people.
Step 2: Recognize that the order in which we choose the people does not matter (i.e., choosing person A, B, and C is the same as choosing C, B, and A).
Step 3: Use the combination formula C(n, r) = n! / (r! * (n - r)!), where n is the total number of people (8) and r is the number of people to choose (3).
Step 4: Plug in the values into the formula: C(8, 3) = 8! / (3! * (8 - 3)!) = 8! / (3! * 5!).
Step 5: Calculate 8! = 8 × 7 × 6 × 5!, so we can cancel 5! in the numerator and denominator.
Step 6: Now we have C(8, 3) = (8 × 7 × 6) / (3 × 2 × 1).
Step 7: Calculate the numerator: 8 × 7 × 6 = 336.
Step 8: Calculate the denominator: 3 × 2 × 1 = 6.
Step 9: Divide the numerator by the denominator: 336 / 6 = 56.
Step 10: Conclude that there are 56 different ways to form a committee of 3 from 8 people.