SOLUTION: Three Mathematics books, five English books, four Science books and a dictionary are to be placed on a student's shelf so that the books of each subject remain together. (a) In

Algebra.Com
Question 1008276: Three Mathematics books, five English books, four Science books and a dictionary are to be placed on a student's shelf so that the books of each subject remain together.
(a) In how many different ways can the books be arranged?
(b) In how many of these will the dictionary be next to the Mathematics books?

Answer by Edwin McCravy(20056)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
There are four topics, considering the dictionary as a "topic"

{Math Books, English books, Science books, Dictionary}

and 4 positions for them on the shelf,

{leftmost, next to left, next to right, rightmost}

So there are 4! ways to order the topics.

Within each of these 4! orderings of the topics, there are

3! ways to arrange the Mathematics books, 
5! ways to arrange the English books,
4! ways to arrange the Science books, and
1! way to "arrange" the dictionary.

Answer 4!3!5!4!1! = 24*6*128*24*1 = 414720.

Edwin


RELATED QUESTIONS

3. Five English books and three Mathematics books are placed at random on a shelf. Find... (answered by ewatrrr)
On a shelf there are four mathematic books and eight english books. if the books are to... (answered by ichudov)
Six math books, five science books, and two English books are to be arranged on a shelf,... (answered by math_helper)
Three maths books, four science books, two geography books and three history books are to (answered by ewatrrr)
Eight mathematics books and three chemistry books are to be placed on a shelf. In how... (answered by josmiceli)
three different language books, two different social science books and five mathematics... (answered by stanbon)
three different language books, two different social science books and five mathematics... (answered by stanbon)
A student has room for six books on a shelf near his study area. The books are a... (answered by ewatrrr)
On a shelf there are four Mathematics books and eight English books. How many ways can... (answered by Edwin McCravy)