The Bookstore Shelf
Harry was busy arranging books on a book shelf at the Wide Horizons Book Shop. Harry was positioning two copies of Inferno, three copies of The Da Vinci Code and four of Origin.
A little boy stood there watching Harry.
“I’ll bet you don’t know in how many ways you can arrange those books on the shelf,” said Lenny teasingly.
Harry looked behind him and saw the grinning, mischievous face of a five-year old looking up at him.
“Well, obviously in just six ways, kid,” said Harry.
“Not if you mix all the books in all possible ways,” replied Lenny impishly.
“What a pesky kid,” said Harry backing off to stand away from the book shelf and scratch his head.
“Just to give you a hand, mister, check how many different words you can make with the letter group ‘mississim’ and you’ll have the answer. That way you won’t have to move the books around,” said Lenny on his way out of the store.
In how many different ways would you say the books can be arranged?
Tags: arrangements, permutations, smart kid