At an airshow, 8 skydivers were released from a plane in a circle formation. Each skydiver was connected to each of the other skydivers with a separate pieces of ribbon. How many pieces of ribbon were used in the skydiving act?

Question

Mathematics

Gavin Hampton

15 April, 11:56

At an airshow, 8 skydivers were released from a plane in a circle formation. Each skydiver was connected to each of the other skydivers with a separate pieces of ribbon. How many pieces of ribbon were used in the skydiving act?

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Answers (1)

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Camryn Spencer · Answer 1

28

Step-by-step explanation:

If a ribbon connects two skydivers, and there are 8 skydivers total, then we can do 8C2, which is equal to (8*7) / 2, which is equal to 28. An alternate solution is to think of it this way. Skydiver 1 is connected to everyone else, which is 7 other people. Skydiver 2 is connected to everyone else but Skydiver 1, which is 6 other people. This goes on until Skydiver 8 is already connected with everyone. So we have 7+6+5+4+3+2+1+0, which is also equal to 28.