a coach needs to choose two players from the hockey team to be captain and assistant captain. If there are 20 players on the team, how many ways he can assign the two roles?

Answer 1

Given 20 players on the team

and two positions that the coach wants to fill,

there are 20!/ (20-2)! = 20!/18!

= (20*19*18.....1) /18!

18! in the numerator and 18! in the denominator cancel each other out

= 20*19 = 380 ways that the coach can assign the two roles.