Activity 1.

The purpose of the following game is to break the four marble code made up from six colours. (red, blue, black, purple, green and yellow). You must try to do it in less than ten minutes and less than ten tries. If a marble is the right colour and in the right position, there will be a white dot, if a marble is the right colour in the wrong position there will be a blue dot. As you play think of how many possible ways there are of arranging the code.  Proceed to the game

Did the game allow for duplicate colours? Did this make it easier or harder? Why?

Activity 2.

Watch the following video:

Khan Academy Permutations and Combinations 2

Activity 3. 

In groups of three, discuss and answer the following questions for the code breaking game:

How many possible colours are there for the first position?
How many possible colours are there for the second position?
How many possible colours are there for the third position?
How many possible colours are there for the fourth position

In your groups of three, discuss how you could calculate how many possible permutations there can be for each row or code and post your formula here.

Now watch this Khan Academy video Permutations and Combinations and compare your answers:

Go to Permutations or Combinations?