Question

The coach of a softball team is holding tryouts and can take only 2 more players for the team. there are players 8 trying out. how many different groups of 2 players could possibly be chosen?

Answer 1

The order in which the two players will be selected from the 8 trying players is not important. The most important thing is to have the two players.
Therefore, this is a question of combination.

The number of groups = 8C2 = 8!/[2!*(8-2)!] = (8*7*6*5*4*3*2*1)/[(2*1)*(6*5*4*3*2*1)] = 28 groups