"Round table" permutations are considered as if the table and chairs and people were on a rotating platform, like the horses on a merry-go-round. Though this is not realistic for table seating, it is nevertheless the accepted way to assume that "round table" mathematics problems are to be interpreted. In building a merry-go-round with a single circle of n horses, the number of orders of n different colored horses can be installed on the merry-go-round is (n-1)! [That's because it would be n! if the merry-go-round could only remain still, i.e., could not rotate. But each of the n rotations would be a different one of the n! "still" arrangements. So each "still" arrangement is counted n times among the n!, so we divide the n! by n to get (n-1)! So when n things are arranged in a line, the number of possible arrangements is n!, but when they are in a circle, the number of possible arrangements is (n-1)! So arranging in a straight line, the formula is n!, and at a round table, it's (n-1)! ------------------------------------------------------ Since 3 people want to sit next to each other, we can have them sit as a trio in 3! or 6 ways. For each of the 3! choices for the trio, we have 7 single people plus 1 trio to seat round the table. That's 8 things Using the (n-1)! "round table" formula, the answer is 3!(8-1)! = 3!7! = 6(5040) = 30240 Edwin