In a word problem where order matters, you will probably need to use
permutations. If order does not matter, use combinations.
Example 9
This question asks about the number of groups that can be formed, so it’s a
combinations question. The number of combinations of 11 women taken 3 at
a time is
The number of combinations of 7 men taken 2 at a time is
A committee of 3 women and 2 men is to be formed from a pool of 11
women and 7 men. How many different committees can be formed?