GaDaMIt said:
Current Questions Requiring Help
Find how many arrangements of the letters of the word TRANSITION are possible if the Is, Ns and Ts are together?
I'm doing [5 x 6!/(2! x 2! x 2!)] x 4!.. and im getting 10800. Answer is 5400
AND
Bob is about to hang his eight shirts in the wardrobe. He has 4 different styles of shirts, 2 of each style. How many different arrangements are possible if no two identical shirts are next to one another?
heres my 2 cents...
u do have the right expression, IE
[5! x 6!/(2! x 2! x 2!)], but you still have to halve it to get 5400 because of this: consider the letters in the 'block' I,I,N,N,T,T...we can have the permutation (INT)[INT], but that is identical to [INT](INT), where the 'INT' block switched places. Thus there is a duplicate of 'INT', not necessarily individual letters themselves.
Thus, halve your original answer to get the correct answer.
2nd question
this is my reasoning...
we have 8 shirts in total, 2 of each style. so the total number of possible arrangements = 8! / (2! * 2! * 2! * 2!) = 2520
now, the same shirts cant be together. THUS, we consider the total arrangments that the same shirts ARE together
consider two indentical shirts - AA. we have BB, CC and DD.
now, the two identical shirts can be in 7 places
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ <-- try placing A A side by side in the possible spaces and see for yourself.
once we put in our duplicate, it doesnt matter how we arrange the rest of the 6 clothes. AND there are 4 styles to consider as well.
therefore, the total arrangements of at least one identical shirt together is:
[4 * 7 * 6!/[2!*2!*2!]/2]= 1260
i divide by two, because of extra duplicates:
consider AABCDBCD - that has a duplicate which i havent addressed before. also consider AACBDCBD - another duplicate, etc etc...all are covered by dividing by two.
so, my final answer to the question is 1260. not sure if its right or not, but i hope the above reasoning is useful.
M.D. ^^