Math Is Fun Forum

Zeroface

Member

Registered: 2006-12-29

Posts: 11

dice puzzle

You have a 6-sided dice with numbers on each side. 5 of the sides have 1 on them and 1 of the sides has 6 on it. The sides are also given letters which are A, B, C, D, E and F. I haven't said which letters correspond to which numbers. List all possible number and letter combinations the dice could have. Tip: Don't rush into it. Think.

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Toast

Real Member

Registered: 2006-10-08

Posts: 1,321

Re: dice puzzle

Well, I think in terms of combinatorics its

But then it is slightly ambiguous and probably a trick question so I will have to look closer

mathsyperson

Moderator

Registered: 2005-06-22

Posts: 4,900

Re: dice puzzle

The question is indeed ambiguous. This is the way I interpreted it:

Any one of A, B, C, D, E or F can be assigned to the face with the 6 on it. All the rest of the letters get assigned to 1's. Therefore, there are 6 possible arrangements.

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MathsIsFun

Administrator

Registered: 2005-01-21

Posts: 7,713

Re: dice puzzle

Combinations: 6

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rida

Real Member

Registered: 2006-09-25

Posts: 839

Re: dice puzzle

Actually it's not because each 1 is a different face of the dice.I think you should think of a normal dice.

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Devantè

Real Member

Registered: 2006-07-14

Posts: 6,400

Re: dice puzzle

5 of the sides have 1 on them and 1 of the sides has 6 on it.

You've confused me with that statement, is the '1' used after the first '1' just part of txtspk?

Zeroface

Member

Registered: 2006-12-29

Posts: 11

Re: dice puzzle

Yes Devanté, it's just part of the text. But hey, you're  just like me. I often
get confused with word problems.

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Simon

Member

Registered: 2006-06-06

Posts: 41

Re: dice puzzle

The question as asked, the answer is indeed 6 - as far as I can tell.

However, if it was a normal numbered dice covered by six letters - by my calculations the number of possible combinations between numbers and letters is 720!