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I think this is a high-quality question.
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Why can't we do 8C3 - 8C1.6C1 - Since we can either select a brother or a sister in first, 1 way to select his/her sibling, and then any of the other 6?
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arnavghatage
Why can't we do 8C3 - 8C1.6C1 - Since we can either select a brother or a sister in first, 1 way to select his/her sibling, and then any of the other 6?
In this case, it should be explained the way shown here.

However, I’d still recommend studying and understanding the method provided in the solution.
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Yes but I'm unable to understand why we did 4C1 instead of 8C1 - We can choose either a brother or a sister first - so 8C1, then we can choose his/her sibling in 1 way and then 1 out of the remaining 6.

Unable to understand where I'm going wrong. Why is 8C1 getting the wrong answer?
Bunuel
arnavghatage
Why can't we do 8C3 - 8C1.6C1 - Since we can either select a brother or a sister in first, 1 way to select his/her sibling, and then any of the other 6?
In this case, it should be explained the way shown here.

However, I’d still recommend studying and understanding the method provided in the solution.
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arnavghatage
Yes but I'm unable to understand why we did 4C1 instead of 8C1 - We can choose either a brother or a sister first - so 8C1, then we can choose his/her sibling in 1 way and then 1 out of the remaining 6.

Unable to understand where I'm going wrong. Why is 8C1 getting the wrong answer?
Bunuel
arnavghatage
Why can't we do 8C3 - 8C1.6C1 - Since we can either select a brother or a sister in first, 1 way to select his/her sibling, and then any of the other 6?
In this case, it should be explained the way shown here.

However, I’d still recommend studying and understanding the method provided in the solution.

Because that method will create duplicates. Suppose you select a sibling X with 8C1 and X's pair Y with *1. You'd get the sibling pair XY. However, you also get a sibling Y with 8C1 and Y's pair X with *1. So, you'd get the same sibling pair XY again, creating duplicates.
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I like the solution - it’s helpful.
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Can you explain how did we get 4C1 and 6C1 here?
earnit
Since we have to select 3 with NOT a sibling pair, then:

Total no of possible ways - number of ways of selecting 3 including a sibling pair

8C3 - 4C1 * 6C1

(No. of ways of selecting 8 taking 3 at a time) - Number of ways of selecting a pair out of 4, multiplied with selecting the remaining one person out of the left 3 pairs
(6 people)

Therefore: 56 - (4*6) = 56-24 = 32
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Can you explain how did we get 4C1 and 6C1 here?


A three-member committee can include at most one sibling pair, since including two pairs would already make four people.

So, 4C1 represents choosing which sibling pair (out of the 4) will be in the committee.

After selecting that pair (2 members), 6C1 represents choosing one more person from the remaining 6 individuals (from the other 3 pairs) to complete the committee.
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Question is ambiguous in highlighted part "From four sibling pairs, each consisting of a brother and a sister, how many three-member committees can be formed without including siblings from the same pair?"
It read as, how many committee from 8 people, not in How many ways from 8 people. If we see how many committee there can be max of 2 complete committees. but if we see it as how many ways the committee, the answer is 32.
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