SOLUTION: in how many ways can10 people be seated in a round table if 3 persons want to sit next to one another?

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Question 1061664: in how many ways can10 people be seated in a round table if 3 persons want to sit next to one another?
Found 2 solutions by josmiceli, Edwin McCravy:
Answer by josmiceli(19441)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
I'll take a shot at this.
Disregarding the other 7 people, the 3 that want
to sit together can be seated
different ways.
-------------------
Thinking of these 3 people as a group, they can be
inserted in a group of 7 others in ways
--------------------
The group of 7 persons can be seated in
different ways
--------------------
I think the answer is

You can do the calculation
Get another opinion on this

Answer by Edwin McCravy(20055)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
"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




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