[Math] In how many ways can $3$ boys and $3$ girls be seated in a row such that each boy is adjacent to at least one girl

combinatoricspermutations

The number of ways of seating 3 boys and 3 girls in a row, such that each boy is adjacent to at least one girl, is?

My Approach:
First arrange the 3 boys in $3!$ ways one of them being
$$\_b_1\_b_2\_b_3\_$$
Now, the girls can sit in any 3 of the 4 spaces left so
$$^4C_3*3!$$
In total $^4C_3\times (3!)^2=144$

Book says the answer is 360, I'm not sure how I'm missing over half of the permutations.

Best Answer

Here is an approach that can be used even for larger problems with ease.

Place the $3$ girls. Each placement creates $2$ inner slots ($\bullet$) where one or two boys can be placed, and $2$ outer slots ($\circ$) where only one boy can be placed, viz. $\quad\circ\;G\;\bullet\;G\;\bullet\;G\;\circ$

If all the boys are separate, there will be $\binom43 = 4$ placements

If two boys are together, they can occupy either of $2$ inner slots,
and the remaining boy can occupy any of the remaining $3$ to create $2\cdot3 = 6$ placements

Thus total arrangements $=(4+6)(3!3!) = 360$