Probability Question About Married Couples

combinatoricsprobability

If four married couples are arranged in a row, what is the probability
that no husband sits next to his wife?

Would it be

$1- \frac{2(4!)}{8!}$?

Best Answer

Assuming you seat the 8 individuals at random, one way of doing this is to use the inclusion exclusion principle and turn a number of couples into virtual individuals so they must sit next to each other to get $$1-\frac{ 2^1{4 \choose 1} 7! - 2^2{4 \choose 2} 6! + 2^3{4 \choose 3} 5! - 2^4{4 \choose 4} 4!}{8!}$$