Answer :
To determine whether the situation describes a permutation or a combination, we need to consider if the order of selection matters.
1. **Permutation vs. Combination:**
- Permutation: Order matters. For example, selecting seniors A, B, and C is different from selecting seniors C, B, and A.
- Combination: Order doesn't matter. For example, selecting seniors A, B, and C is the same as selecting seniors C, B, and A.
2. **Justification:**
- In this case, the order in which the team captains are chosen doesn't affect the outcome. Therefore, this situation describes a combination.
3. **Solving the Problem:**
- To find the number of ways 3 seniors can be chosen as team captains from 8 seniors, we use the combination formula: nCr = n! / [r!(n-r)!]
- Where n = total number of seniors (8) and r = number of team captains (3)
4. **Calculation:**
- Plugging in the values, we get 8C3 = 8! / [3!(8-3)!] = 56 ways.
Therefore, there are 56 different ways to choose 3 team captains from 8 seniors without considering the order in which they are selected. This is a combination since the order of selection does not matter in this scenario.
