This is basic math dealing with proportions?

Question

Your next door name is expecting faternal twins. Since she knows that it is a pssibility of having at least one boy she wants you to help her determine some possible names.

I made a list of 5 boy name ( fred, bob, joe, bill, and ted)

i need to use the names you have chosen and tell how many ways she could name the baby boy using a first name and a different middle name from my list.

I think the answer is 25 ... but i don't know how i got and how to explain it ... please help.

Answer 1

If any of the five names is chosen as the first name,four more names will be left out for the second name
Hence first name can be chosen in 5 ways and the second name in 4 ways
Therefore,the total options
=5*4
=20

Answer 2

There are 5 possible ways to choose the first name. Once that is determined, there are then four possible ways to choose the second name, since you can't reuse the first name. 5 * 4 = 20.

Note that the assumption is that the first and middle name cannot be the same, which probably makes sense. If they are allowed to be the same, then the answer is 5 * 5 = 25.

Answer 3

Any of the 5 names can be the first name
Any of the four remaining names can be the second name
Thus The total possibilities is 5*4 = 20

Answer 4

I get 20. If you pick one name as the first name, you can combine it with 4 different middle names. Each of the five choices of first names can combine with four others, making a total of 20. Does that help?

Answer 5

yep...20.

like this:

Fred Bob
Fred Joe
Fred Bill
Fred Ted

So with every first name you can have four combos...so your explanation would be 5 x 4 = 20

Answer 6

i would probably be like a lot of other people who read your question, with "HUH" but here goes. "mike/michael...