Professional Documents
Culture Documents
an
a 1,
a2
a n , a 1,
an-1
If the last child of each line were to walk around and stand in
front of the first child of each line, then each line would become a
circular arrangement, all of which are identical.
It follows that there are exactly n linear arrangements for each
circular arrangement. Therefore, we divide the number of possible
linear arrangements of n children by n, resulting in
n!/n = (n-1)!
Exercises
1.)
2.)
3.)
4.)
5.)
Solutions to Exercises
1.)
2 / (2n-1).
Let the husbands name be A, his wife B. A has to be next
to B, so we can group the couple as a single entity. So now,
there are 2n-1 entities to be seated around the table,
resulting in (2n-2)! possible arrangements in which A is next
to B. However, clearly, for every arrangement in which A is to
the left of B, there is a different arrangement in which A is to
the right of B. Therefore, there are actually 2*(2n-2)! distinct
arrangements. To obtain the probability, we simply divide by
the total number of arrangements, which is (2n-1)!.
2.)
(n-1)!*2n.
There are n couples, so (n-1)! ways to arrange each couple
around the table. For each couple, there are two ways to
arrange husband and wife: i.e., wife on the left, or wife on
the right. Thus, in one arrangement of n couples around the
table, there are 2n distinct arrangements within the couples.
Since we have (n-1)! arrangements of n couples around the
table, there are (n-1)!*2n total distinct arrangements in which
each husband is next to his wife.
3.)
5!4!
It is evident that going clockwise, a girl must follow a boy
and vice versa. We consider the number of ways to situate
the 5 boys in their positions. This number is simply (5-1)! =
4!. The 5 girls must fill up 5 spaces one between each two
adjacent boys. Since there are 5 spaces for 5 girls to fill,
there are 5! ways to arrange the girls. The total is simply
their product, 4!5!.
4.)
m!(m-1)!
See above.
5.)
(m+1)!m!
As with the previous two problems, it is necessary that
there exists a girl between every two adjacent pair of
boys. But since there are more girls than boys, we have to
choose the m girls to be between m adjacent boy-pairs.
m + 1
There are
ways to choose these m girls. From here,
m
the number of ways to arrange the m girls and m boys
m!(m-1)!*2m /2 = (m+1)m!(m-1)!*m
m
= (m+1)!m!.