SOLUTION: Molly, Mary, Michael, and Melissa are all standing together. (a) In how many ways can they be arranged in a circle? Is it (5-1)!?? (b) In how many ways can they be arranged in a

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Question 1180839: Molly, Mary, Michael, and Melissa are all standing together.
(a) In how many ways can they be arranged in a circle? Is it (5-1)!??
(b) In how many ways can they be arranged in a circle if Molly and Melissa must stand together? Is it 2! x 3! ??
(c) In how many ways can they be arranged in a circle if Molly and Melissa can't stand together?

Answer by ikleyn(52787)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
.

(a)  In  (4-1)! = 3! = 1*2*3 = 6 different ways.

In this problem, special type of permutations is considered: CIRCULAR permutations - - - NOT LINEAR permutations.

Number " 5 " in your post is IRRELEVANT.


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To see many other similar  (and different)  solved problems on CIRCULAR PERMUTATIONS,  look into the lesson
    - Persons sitting around a cicular table
in this site,  and learn the subject from there.

Also,  you have this free of charge online textbook in ALGEBRA-II in this site
    - ALGEBRA-II - YOUR ONLINE TEXTBOOK.

The referred lesson is the part of this online textbook under the topic  "Combinatorics: Combinations and permutations".


Save the link to this textbook together with its description

Free of charge online textbook in ALGEBRA-II
https://www.algebra.com/algebra/homework/complex/ALGEBRA-II-YOUR-ONLINE-TEXTBOOK.lesson

into your archive and use when it is needed.


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