Quote:
Originally Posted by DownInFlames
The first box (the one with your number) is the first choice in the loop, or it will be the last choice because the 99th box will contain your number. Either way it's 100! no 99!
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Ok, I had a huge post typed out explaining why I still thought something was wrong...then it hit me.
I was trying to compute the number of ways the numbers inside the boxes can be arranged. This gets complicated, and is not 100!, but does end up being 100!/100 (ie. 99!) right off the bat. That's why I got 99! in my original reply. I shouldn't have divided that number by 100 since the duplicates are already removed.
What I should have been computing is the number of ways the boxes themselves are arranged (ie. the order in which the boxes are opened within the loop) which gives 100!. Removing duplicates gives 100!/100.