a) there is 55 = 3125 total ways
say the first person chooses a meal, the second a different meal, the 3rd a different meal again, the 4th a different meal, and the 5th chooses a meal already chosen
this is done in 5*4*3*2*4 ways = 480
now looking at the last person (the only one who needs to really be considered with ordering): he can be put any where amongst the other 4, so multiply the answer by 5. Then, divide by 2 since 2 people have the same meal
this gives 480/3125 *5/2 = 48/125
b) the general case:
n!*(n-1)n/(2*nn) based on my reasoning for a)
the question at the start of the thread is just..
there are 52!/47!5! total ways of dealing 5 cards
for a pair, there are 13 values to take a pair from. There are 6 ways of choosing the suits from this value. The remaining 3 cards must be of different values, ie. 12*4*11*4*10*4 for the ways of choosing them, 3! to unorder the 3 non-pairs
this gives P(pair) = 352/833
for choosing 2 pairs, it's 13*12 (to choose the pair values) *6*6 (to choose the suits of the values) /2 to unorder the 2 pairs from each other * 44 to choose the remaining card
gives a probability of 198/4165