Filling up Seats

combinatorics

Part (a) Now suppose that not only must Sir Lancelot and Sir Gawain be diametrically opposite, but Sir Galahad and Sir Percival also demand to be diametrically opposite. How many seatings of the $10$ knights are possible?

Part (b) Suppose for this problem (though it may not be accurate in real life) that the Senate has $47$ Republicans and $53$ Democrats. In how many ways can we form a $3$-senator committee in which neither party holds all $3$ seats?

For Part (a), I made Sir Lancelot and Sir Gawain 1 person and Sir Glahad and Sir Percival also 1 person. So, I got 8!, and I am not sure if this is right.

For Part (b), I got $100*100*47 + 100*100*53.$ But, this is incorrect. I also looked at How many ways can we make a 3-senator community where no 2 of the members are from the same state?, however the answer is incorrect so I am stuck on how to continue and why my answer is incorrect. Any help is appreciated.

Best Answer

For part a), start by seating Lancelot and Gawain. There are $8$ seats left, so $8$ ways to seat Percival, and then Galahad takes the opposite seat. Now there are $6!$ ways to seat the remaining knights, so the answer is $$8\cdot6!$$ Note that we are only considering the position of the knights relative to one another, as is usual in these circular seating problems, so we don't have to worry about where the first two sit, or about their switching seats.

For the second part, I don't understand what you are doing at all. There must be two of one party and one of the other, so the answer is $$\binom{47}{1}\binom{53}{2} + \binom{47}{2}\binom{53}{1}$$