[Math] A dance class consists of 22 students, 10 women and 12 men. If 5 men and 5 women are to be chosen and then paired off, how many results are possible

combinationscombinatoricspermutations

This is a question from Sheldon Ross.

A dance class consists of $22$ students, $10$ women and $12$ men. If
$5$ men and $5$ women are to be chosen and then paired off, how many results are possible?

So my reasoning is this :

  1. I choose 5 women from a pool of 10 in $^{10}C_2$ ways.
  2. I choose 5 men from a pool of 12 in $^{12}C_2$ ways.

So total number of ways of choosing in 10C2 x 12C2. Now I need to arrange them in 5 pairs. This is where I have a different solution. The solution says that there are 5! ways to arrange them in pairs.

But I cant seem to understand why? My reasoning is that for first pair position I need to choose 1 man from 5 and 1 woman from 5. So for the first position I have 5 x 5 choices (5 for man and 5 for woman). Similarly for the second position I have 4 x 4 choices and so on. Hence the total ways are 5! x 5!

So I calculate the total ways as $^{10}C_2 * ^{12}C_2 * 5! * 5!$. Can anyone point the flaw in my reasoning for arranging the chosen men and women in pairs.

Thanks in advance

Best Answer

I believe that the problem is that you're counting multiple times. If the couples were ordered (first couple, second couple, etc.) then it would be correct. In this case, though, you can simply go down the list of men and ask yourself "How many different women can I pair with this man?"