Nine persons gather to play football by forming two teams of four to play each other, the remaining person acts as referee. if 2 particular people are not to be in the same team, how many ways are there to choose the teams?
Number of ways to pick team 1: 9C4
Number of ways to pick team 2: 5C4
So total of ways to pick two teams = 9C4*5C4 / 2! as the teams can be picked the exact same but in opposite order.
Now find the complementary,
Number of ways to pick team 1: 8C4 (since we're pretending the 2 people are 1 unit)
Number of ways to pick team 2: 5C4
So total of ways to pick two teams = 8C4*5C4 as the teams can be picked the exact same but in opposite order.
Therefore the required ways to pick the teams:
(9C4*5C4)/2 - (8C4*5C4)/2 = 140
Not sure if it's right...
Another option would just be:
Picking 3 people from 7 (don't include the 2 guys yet): 7C3
Then for this team pick 1 from the 2 guys: 2C1
Then pick team 2: 5C4
So total = 7C3 x 2C1 x 5C4 /2 (because order doesn't matter so dividing by 2 eliminates the option of picking the teams in reverse order)
= 175
I think this is the right one which tsoliman had first