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Probability and combinations

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by venmic » Sun Jul 31, 2011 1:24 pm
If 5 noble knights are to be seated at a round table, then how many different ways can they be seated?

Can you please explain

should it not be 120 the answer is given as 24

let me know what you think
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by edge » Sun Jul 31, 2011 1:27 pm
In the absence of any other information, 120 is the correct answer.
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by venmic » Sun Jul 31, 2011 9:31 pm
edge wrote:In the absence of any other information, 120 is the correct answer.
i thought the same too but supposedly in circular perms you need to use n-1) ! not sure why
so the answer is 24

can anyone please advice
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by Frankenstein » Sun Jul 31, 2011 10:08 pm
venmic wrote:
edge wrote:In the absence of any other information, 120 is the correct answer.
i thought the same too but supposedly in circular perms you need to use n-1) ! not sure why
so the answer is 24

can anyone please advice
Hey,
Consider the following:
A,B,C,D,E
B,C,D,E,A
C,D,E,A,B
D,E,A,B,C
E,A,B,C,D
These 5 cases are considered distinct in linear arrangement. But in circular arrangement, aren't they same? They are same. So, every order in the circular permutation is counted 5 times in linear permutations. Hence, we divide the total number of linear arrangements with 5.
So, answer will be 5!/5 = 4!
This is exactly, how you generalize for circular permutations of 'n' items. It will be n!/n = (n-1)!
Cheers!

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by naveen451 » Mon Aug 01, 2011 12:56 am
(n-1)! ways for circular permutations and
(n-1)!/2 ways for necklaces
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by GMATGuruNY » Mon Aug 01, 2011 4:40 am
I posted about circular permutations here:

https://www.beatthegmat.com/seating-arra ... 85488.html

I posted about ring permutations here:

https://www.beatthegmat.com/counting-methods-t73853.html
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