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Challenge #270: Pony Permutations

AYXAcademy
Alteryx
Alteryx

A solution to last week's challenge can be found hereSource: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belmont_StakesSource: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belmont_Stakes

 

This week's challenge was submitted by @mst3k  - Thank you for your submission!

 

Later this week, the Belmont Stakes will be held in New York. If you are unfamiliar, this is a famous horse race which serves as the third race in the Triple Crown (the Kentucky Derby and Preakness are the other two legs). While there will not be a triple crown winner this year (since different horses won the previous two legs), we can still have some fun analyzing some race possibilities!

 

A race is being held between 4 horses. Create an output of every possible combination of race finishes. No horse should be able to finish in more than 1 place, but be warned there are two *different* mustangs named Sally in this race!
Extra Credit: If there are 5 horses instead of 4, how many possible outcomes are there? Can that number be generalized if there are n number of horses?

patrick_digan
17 - Castor
17 - Castor

@estherb47 Does this bring back nightmares of Born to Solve Nashville?

Spoiler
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AkimasaKajitani
17 - Castor
17 - Castor

My solution.

 

Spoiler
AkimasaKajitani_0-1622553803146.png

Macro:

AkimasaKajitani_1-1622553823806.png

 

PhilipMannering
16 - Nebula
16 - Nebula

My solution attached,

 

Spoiler
PhilipMannering_0-1622553952784.png

For 5 horses there would be 5! = 120 ways of arranging them.

 

The cheat dynamic solution

Spoiler
PhilipMannering_0-1622562501973.png

 

patrick_digan
17 - Castor
17 - Castor

And to solve the advanced part/make it more dynamic without macros, we can simulate enough horse races to get all the possible outcomes

Spoiler
patrick_digan_0-1622554272201.png

 


 

DeanWest
9 - Comet

Off to the races! 🐎

 

Spoiler
challenge_270_solution_DeanWest-snippet.jpg

 

AngelosPachis
16 - Nebula

Append fields tool to the rescue for this week's challenge!

 

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RolandSchubert
16 - Nebula
16 - Nebula

My solution

 

Spoiler
270.jpg
ellen-wiegand
Alteryx
Alteryx

fun fact: race horse names cannot be reused until 5 years after the horse has stopped racing or breeding

 

Spoiler
ellen-wiegand_0-1622558229261.png

 

I believe the number of solutions for this problem is just a simple factorial? So it should generalize to any number of starters. 

Toons
12 - Quasar

My solution :

 

Spoiler
Toons_0-1622558303955.png