$3$ Boys and $3$ Girls sit at a circular table. the probability the boys sit together

combinationscombinatoricspermutationsprobability

Three boys and three girls sit at a circular table. No boy or girl is more likely to sit on a particular chair. What is the probability the three boys all sit together?

I have been looking at this problem. One of the approaches I took is to think of one boy taking a chair – leaving $5!$ possible combinations for the remaining sitting positions of the group. Then the next boy can sit to the left or right of that boy ($\times2$) and the next boy can sit to the right or left of him ($\times2$).

And as the $3$ boys can be arranged in $3!$ ways this gives $2\times2\times3!$ possibilities for the boys out of $5!$ overall. However this doesn't seem to work as the answer is $3/10$. This would fit with $\frac{3\times2\times3!}{5!}$ but I cant see why to change one of these twos into the required three. Am I missing something?

Many thanks for any help – I am sure it is something obvious I am overlooking so feel free to say so

Best Answer

Call the first boy A, second boy B, and third boy C. Your method doesn't allow for the ordering ACB.

The correct logic is as follows: make the left-most boy sit in a fixed chair - so we have BBB GGG. Then there are a total of $(3!)^2$ ways of making such an arrangement. Divide this by $5!$ and you get $3 \over 10$.