Exams › GATE › General Aptitude

Two wizards try to create a spell using all the four elements, water, air, fire, and earth. For this, they decide to mix all these elements in all possible orders. They also decide to work independently. After trying all possible combination of elements, they conclude that the spell does not work. How many attempts does each wizard make before coming to this conclusion, independently?

1. 24
2. 48
3. 16
4. 12

Correct answer: 24

Solution

Each wizard can create spells by arranging the four elements in different orders. Since there are 4 elements, the number of unique arrangements (permutations) is calculated as 4! (4 factorial), which equals 24. Therefore, each wizard makes 24 attempts.

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