HELP!!!

[prowannabie]

im not good with math, can someone explain to me how u get this answer?
(ignore the dots on left, only way i could get it to indent)
.2
C =1081
.47

[MikeBandy]

I have trouble with formatting the numbers correctly, also. You're obviously asking about the combination of 47 things taken two at a time.

47C2, except that the 47 and the 2 should be subscripts. The general formula for n things taken r at a time is n!/((r!)(n-r)!). However, there's a better way to explain it.

The first number is one of 47 things. The second number is one of 46 things. We multiply 47 x 46 = 2162. However, we aren't concerned about which thing came first and which thing came second. Therefore we divide 2162 by 2 = 1081.

If we wanted to compute 47C3, we'd do the following: (47/3)(46/2)(45/1), because the first thing could come first, second, or third – the second thing could come second or third – and the third thing would come last.

If this isn't clear, please let me know, and I'll try again. I hope others will also explain it differently.