Probability Question

Lands Leaving

Can anyone tell me how to figure this out (I'm awful at maths unfortunately)

If there are 8 football matches and each one can result in a win for either team or a draw how many possible combinations of results are there?

so 8 matches, 3 possible results per team, how many combinations?

Thanks!

and if you could describe the method simply enough as well that'd be great

Michael Collins

Simpe enough: 8 events, 3 different outcome in each so it's just 3*3*3... etc 8 times or 3^8 = 6561

If you think about it with two pitches first it should become obvious:

You have:

win win
win lose
win draw

lose win
lose lose
lose draw

draw win
draw lose
draw draw

i.e. for a given result on the first pitch you have 3 on the 2nd. So given that there's 3 different results possible on the first pitch thats 3*3 = 9 in total.
It's just an extension of that then for 8 pitches.

This is the Fundamental Principle of Counting by the way.

Lands Leaving

Brilliant, thanks for your help, pretty sure I've got it now

niallo1

Shouldnt that be 8 choose 3 = 8C3 = 56 ...

i.e. in how many ways/combinations can you choose three results (win lose draw) from 8 independant events

Pherekydes

niallo1 wrote: »

Shouldnt that be 8 choose 3 = 8C3 = 56 ...

i.e. in how many ways/combinations can you choose three results (win lose draw) from 8 independant events

No. Read post #2. It's clear enough.