[Math] Combinatorics question: Boys and Girls around table

combinatorics

In how many ways can 4 boys and 4 girls sit around a circle table if each boy sits between two girls? (Rotations of the same arrangement are still considered the same. Each boy and girl is unique, not interchangeable.)

I said that it has to be of the form BGBGBGBG, so there would be (4!)(4!) ways to order the boys and the girls. However, you have to divide by 8 for overcounting, because there are 8 ways to rotate any order. This would be 576/8=72 ways. However, this is wrong. Could I get some help? Thank you.

Best Answer

I think of it this way. One of the girls is the Queen, and one of the chairs is a throne. The Queen of course sits on the throne. The rest of the girls can be permuted in $3!$ ways, and the boys in $4!$.

Remark: The problem with deciding that we will divide by something is that then we are doing manipulation and not visualization. I prefer to keep things concrete, to retain control over the counting process.