document.write( "Question 934456: 5 boys and 3 girls are to be seated on chairs arranged in a row. If the arrangement is made by a random selection, find the probability that no two girls are selected side by side. \n" ); document.write( "
Algebra.Com's Answer #567443 by Edwin McCravy(20054)![]() ![]() You can put this solution on YOUR website! \r\n" ); document.write( "We only need to consider arrangements by gender only.\r\n" ); document.write( " \r\n" ); document.write( "We take the 3 girls and 2 boys to set up the minimum requirements\r\n" ); document.write( "for a success: \r\n" ); document.write( "\r\n" ); document.write( "__GB__GB__G__\r\n" ); document.write( "\r\n" ); document.write( "Now we have to place the remaining 3 boys in the 4 groups represented\r\n" ); document.write( "by the 4 blanks. This is the number of ordered partitions of 3 things \r\n" ); document.write( "into 4 groups allowing groups of size 0.\r\n" ); document.write( "\r\n" ); document.write( "The number of ordered partitions of n things into r groups is C(n+r-1,r-1), \r\n" ); document.write( "counting groups of 0.\r\n" ); document.write( "\r\n" ); document.write( "So we have n=3, r=4\r\n" ); document.write( "\r\n" ); document.write( "C(3+4-1,4-1) = C(6,3) = 20 ways to place the remaining boys into those\r\n" ); document.write( "4 blanks (including leaving some of the blanks empty).\r\n" ); document.write( "\r\n" ); document.write( "Just for illustrative purposes, those 20 arrangements by gender only are:\r\n" ); document.write( "\r\n" ); document.write( "1. GBGBGBBB\r\n" ); document.write( "2. GBGBBGBB\r\n" ); document.write( "3. GBGBBBGB\r\n" ); document.write( "4. GBGBBBBG\r\n" ); document.write( "5. GBBGBGBB\r\n" ); document.write( "6. GBBGBBGB\r\n" ); document.write( "7. GBBGBBBG\r\n" ); document.write( "8. GBBBGBGB\r\n" ); document.write( "9. GBBBGBBG\r\n" ); document.write( "10. GBBBBGBG\r\n" ); document.write( "11. BGBGBGBB\r\n" ); document.write( "12. BGBGBBGB\r\n" ); document.write( "13. BGBGBBBG\r\n" ); document.write( "14. BGBBGBGB\r\n" ); document.write( "15. BGBBGBBG\r\n" ); document.write( "16. BGBBBGBG\r\n" ); document.write( "17. BBGBGBGB\r\n" ); document.write( "18. BBGBGBBG\r\n" ); document.write( "19. BBGBBGBG\r\n" ); document.write( "20. BBBGBGBG\r\n" ); document.write( "\r\n" ); document.write( "So the numerator of the desired probability is 20.\r\n" ); document.write( "\r\n" ); document.write( "The denominator is the total number of gender arrangements.\r\n" ); document.write( "\r\n" ); document.write( "We can pick any 3 of the 8 positions to place the 3 girls \r\n" ); document.write( "C(8,3) = 56 ways \r\n" ); document.write( "\r\n" ); document.write( "Answer C(6,3)/C(8,3) = 20/56 = 5/14\r\n" ); document.write( "\r\n" ); document.write( "Edwin\n" ); document.write( " |