Question

If there are 4 paths to travel from Delhi to Kanpur, then in how many ways a person can travel from Delhi to Kanpur and came back to Delhi?

(a) 4

(b) 8

(c) 12

(d) 16

I had been asked this question by my school principal while I was bunking the class.

The origin of the question is Fundamental Principle of Counting in section Permutations and Combinations of Mathematics – Class 11

Answer 1

The correct option is (d) 16

The explanation is: If there are 4 paths to travel from Delhi to Kanpur then number of paths to travel from Kanpur to Delhi are 4. So, by the fundamental principle of counting, total number of ways to go and come back are 4*4 = 16.