Distributing keys to A people, where B people are required to unlock, requires: A choose B-1 keys. We can distribute following possible combinations: Ex: 5 people, 2 required: 5 C 3 = 10 0123 012 4 01 34 0 234 1234 We obtain A choose B-1, from seeing that we require the combinations to be generated from A-B+1. This is obtained from A-G+1 = B, People - GroupSize + 1 = Required, G = A-B+1 A choose A-B+1 = A choose B-1