[Math] Probability of alternating colors of cards drawn from a deck

combinatoricsprobability

I'm supposed to find the probability that red and black cards strictly alternate when removing a number of cards from a deck, say 12. I've got that the probabilty of removing 6 red and 6 black without strictly alternating would be $${26 \choose 6} {26 \choose 6} \over {52 \choose 12}$$
I'm supposed to also assume that the cards are not returned after being pulled from the deck. From looking at Two cards are drawn without replacement from an ordinary deck, find the probability.., I assume what it should be, for this problem, it would be $${26 \choose 1}^2 {25 \choose 1}^2{24 \choose 1}^2{23 \choose 1}^2{22 \choose 1}^2{21 \choose 1}^2 \over {52\choose 12}$$ where there are to be 12 cards chosen from the deck of 52, and there will be 26 reds available on the first draw, 26 blacks on the second draw, 25 reds on the next draw, and so on until they are all drawn to satisfy the requirements.

I feel like there is supposed to be more to it though, as though I'm also supposed to reflect the decreasing number of cards available in the deck, but I'm a loss at how to do so. I appreciate any insight anyone can provide. Thanks!

Edit: After doing some research, I might have figured it out? To perform the decreasing likelihood of each card, it should be something like:
$${52 \choose 26}{51 \choose 26}{50 \choose 25}{49 \choose 25}{48 \choose 24}{47 \choose 24}{46 \choose 23}{45 \choose 23}{44 \choose 22}{43 \choose 22}{42 \choose 21}{41 \choose 21} \over {52 \choose 12} $$ Is this correct?

Best Answer

You have missed a factor $2$ because there is nothing to tell you whether the first card should be red or black, but otherwise your solution is correct. I think a clearer way to say it is that the chance the first card is right is $\frac {52}{52}$ because any card is acceptable. The chance the second card is right is $\frac {26}{51}$ because there are $26$ of the opposite color to the first out of $51$ cards remaining. Then the chance the third card is right (assuming the first two are) is $\frac {25}{50}$ and so on. This becomes $$\frac {52}{52} \cdot \frac {26}{51} \cdot\frac {25}{50} \cdot \frac{25}{49} \dots \frac {21}{41}$$ which you can check matches your solution to within the factor $2$ in the first term.

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