[Math] permutation arrange boys and girls in a circle

combinatoricspermutations

got the following question:

how many ways there are to arrange 4 girls and 4 boys in a circle,

with no limitations.

all the boys are on one side and all the girls (4 girls on one side and 4 boys on the other side)
are on one side.

every boy between two girls.

As I understand the answer to the first one is : $7!$

About the second and the third conditions I am not sure:
my strategy was:

  1. arrange all the girls in a circle: $$3!$$
  2. insert and rearrange the boys in the remaining spaces: $$4!$$
  3. so the final answer should be: $$3!\cdot 4!$$

Is it correct?

Thanks A lot to the kind helper.

Best Answer

I think your second answer is not correct.

For the first it's just $$\frac{8!}{8}=7!$$ because there are $8!$ permutations of $8$ children and since all this happens in the circle we need to divide by $8$.

The second problem: $$4!4!$$ Because let $a$ be all four girls and $b$ be all four boys.

Thus, we need to place $a$ and $b$ on the circle, which gives $\frac{2!}{2}=1$ cases.

Now, we can remember that they are $4$ (boys and girls), which gives $(4!)^2$.

The third problem: $$3!4!$$

For the new second problem.

If you mean that we need $4$ boys placed together or $4$ girls placed together then the answer is $$2\cdot\frac{5!4!}{5}$$

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