Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) Practice Test

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What defines a combination in terms of order?

Order does not matter
Order does matter
Order is prioritized
Order is irrelevant

The correct answer is: Order does not matter

A combination is defined as a selection of items where the order of those items does not influence the grouping. This means that if you have a set of elements and you choose a subset from that set, the arrangement in which you pick those elements is irrelevant. For example, choosing the letters A, B, and C is considered the same combination as choosing C, B, and A; both represent the same grouping of items. This definition distinguishes combinations from permutations, where the order of selection is crucial. In permutations, different arrangements of the same items result in different sequences, while in combinations, merely changing the order of selection does not create a new combination. Hence, the relevance of order is what fundamentally sets combinations apart as a specific concept in combinatorics.