How many different two-letter initials can be made using the letters d, g,m, s and t if you can use each letter only once in each initial

the answer   is 200

step-by-step explanation:

this is a problem about poisson probabilities.   i don't know if you've

already studied poisson distributions, or if you have a place to look

to read more about the subject.  

here's how you can see a poisson distribution coming.   when there are

a lot of events that may happen at any time (or any place), and when

you're counting how many of them happen at a particular time (or a

particular place), and each event is independent of the others, then

the result is a poisson distribution.   this is roughly true for the

chocolate chips; one chip being in a cookie has only a small effect on

the probability that another chip will be in the cookie.

once you know you have a poisson distribution, you know a lot.   there

is only one parameter to a poisson distribution, so if you know the

mean, you know everything.   the form of the distribution is

  probability of n chips = {[e^(-x)]*(x^n)} / (n! )

- "runner b is moving at a slower rate."

- "the graphs shown are graphs of distance(km) against time(min).

the slopes of this graphs are are given by:

slope = (change in y)/(change in x)

= (change in distance)/(change in time)

this is the formula for finding the speed. so, the slope of these graphs represent the speed of the runner.

taking each division in the graph to represent 1 on both axis:

runner a ⇒ speed = (2-0)/(1-0)

= 2/1

= 2 km/min

runner b ⇒ speed = (3-0)/(3-0)

= 3/3

= 1 km/min

this shows that   runner b is moving at a slower rate."