Question

A researcher plans to identify each participant in a certain medical experiment with a code consisting of either a single letter or a pair of distinct letters written in alphabetical order. What is the lea

Answer 1

Answer:

at least 5

Step-by-step explanation:

If the question was similar to the one given below

A researcher plans to identify each participant in a certain medical experiment with a code consisting of either a single letter or a pair of distinct letters written in alphabetical order. What is the least number of letters that can be used if there are 12 participants, and each participant is to receive a different code?

The answer would be as follows

If we use 3 letters or any distinct letter as a comma such that 2 are in alphabetical order then we would get

4C2= 6 ways to use these letters and the comma

If we use 4 letters or any distinct letter as a comma such that 2 are in alphabetical order then we would get

5C2= 10 ways to use these letters and the comma

If we use 5 letters or any distinct letter as a comma such that 2 are in alphabetical order then we would get

6C2= 15 ways to use these letters and the comma

We need the least number of the alphabets to assign codes to 12 participants.

So the least number of alphabets is 5 because it can give codes to at least to  12 people .

Pair of alphabets + distinct letter ≥ 12

5 + 1  ≥ 12

6c2  ≥ 12

15  ≥ 12