That depends on whether, say, these three table
seating arrangements
____________ ____________ ____________
| Tom Ann | | Meg Tom | | Meg Sam |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
|_Sam___Meg__| |_Ann__Sam___| |_Ann__Tom___|
are considered as three DIFFERENT seating arrangements or whether
they are considered to all three be the SAME seating arrangement:
If the three above are considered to be DIFFERENT seating arrangements,
then there are 16 seats to place 16 students, so the answer is
16! = 16*15*14*13*12*11*10*9*8*7*6*5*4*3*2*1 = 2.09x10^13
But if those are considered to all be the same seating arrangement
(because they can take any of the four seats at the tables) then
the answer is
(16C4)(12C4)(8C4)(4C4) = (1820)(495)(70)(1) = 63,063,000
Edwin
