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Perms and Combs Question (1 Viewer)

Raginsheep

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Assuming you have the letters AA BB CC DD, in how many ways can you arrange them so no two letters of the same type are together?
 

haboozin

Do you uhh.. Yahoo?
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is the answer 17736 ?


i dont want to misslead u with telling u how i did it before i know its the answer (cuase im pretty crap)
 

grendel

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ok her goes.

the total number of arrangements=(total with no restrictions)-
..........................[(total arrangements with all four letters adjacent)+
.............................(total arrangements with three of the letters adjacent)+
...............................(total arrangements with two of the letters adjacent)+
.................................(total arrangements with one letter adjacent)]

total with no restrictions = 8!/(2!2!2!2!)=2520

total arrangements with all four letters adjacent=4!=24

total arrangements with three of the letters adjacent=[5!/2!-24] X 4C3=144

total arrangements with two of the letters adjacent=[6!/(2!2!)-(24+36+36)] X 4C2=504

total arrangements with one letter adjacent=[7!/(2!2!2!)-(24+36+36+36+84+84+84)] X 4C1=984

TF the total number of arrangements = 2520-(24+144+504+984) = 864

NOTE: all numbers in red are subtracted from the total as these were counted in the previous case(s)
all numbers in the [] are arrangements for one instance only and are multiplied by the numbers in blue to take into account all the different instances.
 

VQ

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Jan 18, 2005
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Hate it too... (permutation-combination-probability)

anyway just chillin', how can u get interviewed so fast? congrats!!!

waiting but apparently losing the UNSW one, not hoping too much anyway...
 

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