RE: odd sort of bit-counter...

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mi400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx / Joe Pluta
> Sent: Monday, September 20, 2004 4:03 PM
>
> > BTW, 100! = 9.3 e+153 = the number of any possible combination of a
> > list of 100 elements.  Were you thinking of a different value?
>
> Factorials are permutations.  Combinations are "far smaller", relatively
> speaking.  The number of possible combinations of N elements is 2^N, or
> in the case of 100 elements, about a million possibilities.

Darn it dude!  I knew this stuff in the last millenium, but my brain turned
fuzzy tutoring my kids through 8th grade math!

So, forgive my ignorance, but what is 2^N?  In the example above, is it
2^100, or 2 to the 100th power?  Windows calculator has a x^y button and
when I type 2 [x^y] 100 [=], I get
1,267,650,600,228,229,401,496,703,205,376.

Does the following represent 3 permutations but only 1 combination?
a) 1, 5, 8
b) 5, 1, 8
c) 8, 5, 1

(Re)learning my math today!

db