Use combinations for a committee with identical membership roles. Use permutations for first, second, and third places. These formulas assume distinct choices without replacement; repeated selections require a different model.
Compare with numbers
There are 120 ways to choose an unordered group of three people from ten. There are 720 ways to assign three distinct roles from ten people. The difference is whether changing the order makes a new outcome.
Which quantity should you enter?
Without replacement, permutations count n!/(n−r)! and combinations divide that result by r!. For ten people and three places: 10 × 9 × 8 = 720 ordered outcomes; divide by 3 × 2 × 1 to obtain 120 groups.
Try your own values
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