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Maths noob, here.

I have a set of 100 distinct words, and I randomly select three words to form a combination, like happy.tire.complain.

The combination must comprise of three distinct words - so combinations like happy.tire.happy, for example, are ineligible.

I do this twice, to form two random combinations. What is the probability that the two combinations will be identical?

Intuition leads me to this working, but I feel like it's wrong:

1. P(1) * P(2) * P(3) = (1/100) * (1/99) * (1/98) = 1/970200 = x

2. P(4) * P(5) * P(6) = (1/100) * (1/99) * (1/98) = 1/970200 = y

3. x * y = 1/970200² = 1/941288040000

1 Answers 1

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You have $$100\cdot 99\cdot 98$$ choices for the three words (assuming that the order matters), so the probability to get the same word in the second try is just $$\frac{1}{100\cdot 99\cdot 98}$$