Al's big sale
Discount Al's Thrift Shop is having a one-day going-out-of-business sale in which everything must go!
Al only has four distinct things left in his shop.
All the years that Al has been in business, he's only ever had four distinct customers, and he does not expect that to change today
At the end of the day, the bank representative will come to foreclose the shop, and he will take whatever is left.
How many ways can Al's things be sold to his customers (or taken by the bank)?
The answer is 625.
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1 solution
Relevant wiki: Distinct Objects into Distinct Bins
There are 4 distinct objects (the things that Al is selling) that are distributed among 5 distinct bins (the 4 customers + the bank). Thus, the number of ways they can be distrubted is 5 4 = 6 2 5 .