[Math] Permutations in Two Rows

combinatoricspermutations

I have been looking at linear and circular permutations. I have now come across a question that entails permutations in two rows.

This is the question:
Six natives and two foreigners are seated in a compartment of a railway carriage with four seats on either side. In how many ways can the passengers seat themselves if:
i) the foreigners sit opposite each other
ii) the foreigners do not sit next to each other

My futile attempts:
i) 8! – (7!*2)
After looking at this example, A classroom has two rows of eight seats…
I tried
8! -(6!/2*4P3)
whose computational value is unfortunately the solution to ii)
My incorrect reasoning in this case was that if 2 people sit opposite each other always, then there are 6 positions left which can be arranged in 2! and for each row you can only choose 3 people to be in any one of the 4 positions.

The correct approach and reasoning for both problems would be greatly appreciated.

Best Answer

For i) you should seat the foreigners first. Seat one-8 choices. The other foreigner is fixed. Then seat the natives, $6!$ possibilities. Total is $8 \cdot 6!=5760$ For ii) again seat one foreigner first. If he is on the end ($4$ places), there are $6$ left for the other foreigner, then $6!$ for the rest. Otherwise ($4$ places) there are $5$ for the other foreigner, then $6!$ for the rest.

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