Choosing 3 Chinese dishes from a Menu?

Permutation or Combination?Choosing 3 Chinese dishes from a Menu?
Combination. With a combination, the order of the items doesn't matter. With a permutation, the order DOES matter. If you used a permutation here, then (stir-fried rice, mu-shu pork, hot and sour soup) would count as one permutation, and (mu-shu pork, stir-fried rice, hot and sour soup) would count as another permutation.



Inviting friends to a birthday party is the same, it doesn't matter if you invite (Frank, Mary Tom) or (Mary Frank, Tom).



For permutation, think of choosing a password from letters of the alphabet. The two permutations of three letters (a, c, t) are different from (c,a,t). If you password was "act" you couldn't enter "cat" instead.



Translated to people, think of first-graders lining up to go to recess. In this case, order is a big deal, whoever is first is the happiest... therefore (Frank, Mary Tom) and (Mary Frank, Tom) are not the same (except for maybe to Tom), hence permutation.



Another time order matters with people is when you are selecting people for different roles. If you are choosing 5 people, and the first person you pick will be president, the second vice-president, etc., then order matters and it is a permutation