document.write( "Question 915839: you have 5 Gs and 9 Fs. How many ways can these letters be lined up if the Gs cannot be next to eachother? \n" ); document.write( "

Algebra.Com's Answer #555815 by richard1234(7193) $\"\"$ $\"About$

You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Treat each G as a \"bar\" (e.g. |) or divider and each F as a star. The problem is equivalent to finding number of ways to arrange 9 stars and 5 bars given that there is at least one stars separating any two bars, or the number of ways to put 9 indistinguishable balls into 5+1 = 6 distinguishable boxes, given that the middle four each contain at least one ball.\r
\n" ); document.write( "
\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "Put one ball into each of the middle four boxes, and now we are left with 5 balls and 6 boxes. The number of ways is (5+6-1)C5 = 10C5 = 252. \n" ); document.write( "

\n" );