Bunuel
A director is casting the roles of Vladimir and Estragon in his play. In all, a total of nine actors auditioned for at least one of the roles. Six auditioned for the role of Vladimir, and seven auditioned for the role of Estragon. If the director will choose one actor for each role from among those who auditioned for that role, and if the same actor cannot be chosen for both roles, in how many ways can the director cast the two roles?
A. 32
B. 36
C. 38
D. 42
E. 72
Since 6 actors are auditioning for the role of Vladmir, there are 6P1 = 6!/(6-1)! = 6 ways that role can be filled.
Since a total of 9 actors auditioned for at least one of the two roles, 6 auditioned for the role of Vladimir, and 7 auditioned for the role of Estragon, it must be that 6 + 7 - 9 = 4 actors auditioned for both roles, 6 - 4 = 2 auditioned for Vladimir only, and 7 - 4 = 3 auditioned for Estragon only.
Let’s make two cases: 1) the director picks 1 of the 4 dual-role actors for Vladimir, and 2) the director picks 1 of the 2 single-role actors for Vladimir.
Case 1:
If the director picks any 1 of 4 actors who auditioned for both roles to play Vladimir, then he has 6 actors left who can play Estragon (notice that 7 - 1 = 6 and we subtract 1 from 7 because that actor is chosen to play Vladimir already). Thus, the number of ways this can be done is 4 x 6 = 24.
Case 2:
If the director picks any 1 of 2 actors who auditioned for Vladimir only to play Vladimir, then he has 7 actors to choose from to play Estragon. Thus, the number of ways this can be done is 2 x 7 = 14.
Thus, the total number of ways the director can choose the actors to play the two roles is 24 + 14 = 38.
Alternative solution:
We’ve approached the problem from the angle of Vladimir. We could have instead approached it from the angle of Estragon. Again, we divide it into two cases: 1) the director picks 1 of the 4 dual-role actors for Estragon, and 2) the director picks 1 of the 3 single-role actors for Estragon.
Case 1:
If the director picks any 1 of 4 actors who auditioned for both roles to play Estragon, then he has 5 actors left who can play Vladimir (notice that 6 - 1 = 5 and we subtract 1 from 6 because that actor is chosen to play Estragon already). Thus, the number of ways this can be done is 4 x 5 = 20.
Case 2:
If the director picks any 1 of 3 actors who auditioned for Estragon only to play Estragon, then he has 6 actors to choose from to play Vladimir. Thus, the number of ways this can be done is 3 x 6 = 18.
Thus, the total number of ways the director can choose the actors to play the two roles is 20 + 18 = 38.
Answer: C