SOLUTION: In how many different ways can five people be seated on a five-seat bench if two of them must seat next to each other?

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Question 1075744: In how many different ways can five people be seated on a five-seat bench if two of them must seat next to each other?
Answer by josmiceli(19441) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Here's my guess:
Let the people be called
A, B, C, D, E
Let the people who must sit next to eachother
be A and B
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Let ( A,B ) be considered a "position", so now
there are 4 "positions"
( A,B ), C, D, E
There are 4 ways to fill the 1st position
There are 3 ways to fill the 2nd position
There are 2 ways to fill the 2nd position
There is 1 way to fill the 4th position
+4%2A3%2A2%2A1+=+24+
I must double this since I could have either
(A,B) or (B,A) so there are
2*24 = 48 ways to seat the 5 people
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definitely get another opinion!