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Today Puzzle #663

Puzzle No. 663 – Tuesday 27 January 2020

The first UK-wide citizens’ assembly on climate change started at the weekend in Birmingham with 110 members of the public, representative of the UK population. Diversity is the spectrum of infinite dissimilarities that distinguish individuals. If we only consider 7 categories of diversity and try and form just 2 groups in each, is it possible to have all the possible combinations represented?

Today’s #PuzzleForToday has been set by Dr Shaun Fitzgerald, Director of The Royal Institution

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The number of possible combinations is 2^7 = 128, and so it is not possible. (However, note that the purpose of the assembly is for it to be representative rather than completely exhaustive so 110 is not necessarily a poor number)

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