# Number of ways to choose shoes so that there will be no complete pair

I am just stuck with a problem and need your help. The question is:

A closet has 5 pairs of shoes. The number of ways in which 4 shoes can be chosen from it so that there will be no complete pair is a.80 b.160 c.200 d.none

I think the answer should be $\binom{10}{1}\cdot\binom{8}{1}\cdot\binom{6}{1}\cdot\binom{4}{1}$. But I seriously doubt this could be the answer. Please help me in solving this.

-

## 1 Answer

Hint: The four shoes must come from 4 different pairs.

For a specific set of 4 pairs, there are $2^4$ ways of choosing the shoes. There are 5 possible sets of 4 pairs. Hence there are $5*2^4$ ways in total.

Actually your idea is right, but you are counting the number of ordered sequences of four shoes. Divide by $4!$ and you get the answer you are looking for.

-

Why should I divide by 4!? – Mistu4u Oct 1 '12 at 4:36
{"extraction_info": {"found_math": true, "script_math_tex": 0, "script_math_asciimath": 0, "math_annotations": 0, "math_alttext": 0, "mathml": 0, "mathjax_tag": 0, "mathjax_inline_tex": 4, "mathjax_display_tex": 0, "mathjax_asciimath": 0, "img_math": 0, "codecogs_latex": 0, "wp_latex": 0, "mimetex.cgi": 0, "/images/math/codecogs": 0, "mathtex.cgi": 0}, "config": {"markdown_headings": true, "markdown_code": true, "boilerplate_config": {"ratio_threshold": 0.3, "absolute_threshold": 10, "end_threshold": 15, "enable": true}, "remove_buttons": true, "remove_image_figures": true, "remove_link_clusters": true, "table_config": {"min_rows": 2, "min_cols": 3, "format": "github"}, "remove_chinese": true, "remove_edit_buttons": true, "extract_latex": true}, "english_confidence": 0.9390016794204712, "perplexity_flag": "head"}