For some reason, when problems are about sitting around a table, all the rotations as shown below are considered the same. (I don't believe they should be the same, but mathematicians do consider them the same seating arrangement, so I will here. You might want to ask your teacher about whether that should be the case.)I am assuming that all 7 of those above are considered as the same seating arrangement. If it doesn't matter where Jack and Jill sit, the number of ways is 7!/7. (We divide by 7 because all the 7 seating arrangements pictured above are considered the same. And 7!/7 is just 6!. Now we must calculate the number of ways Jack and Jill sit together. Imagine there being only 6 chairs and Jill sits in Jack's lap. That's the same as when Jack is seated left of Jill. That's 6!/6 or 5! ways. But there is another, by imagining only 6 chairs with Jack sitting in Jill's lap. That's the same as when Jack is seated right of Jill. That's another 6!/6 or 5! ways. So there are 2*5! ways they sit together. P(they sit together) = 2*5!/6! = 2*(5*4*3*2*1)/(6*5*4*3*2*1) = 2/6 = 1/3 Therefore P(they do not sit together) = 1 = 1/3 = 2/3. Edwin