[Math] Probablity that 3 husbands sit next to their wives round a circular table

combinatoricsprobability

There are 3 couples sitting randomly round a 6-seater circular table. What is the probability that all the husbands and wives sit next to each other?

My attempt:

First wife, say, takes any of the six seats. That leaves 2/5 seats where her husband can sit next to her.
Second wife, say, can take any of the four remaining seats. There is then only 1 seat out of the remaining 3 where her husband can sit next to her AND leave two empty adjacent seats for the last couple.

So the answer is 2/5 * 1/3 = 2/15.

Best Answer

The general case:

Consider $n$ groups of $k$.

Because the table is round there is a cyclic symmetry.

The total number of permutations is therefore $(nk-1)!$.

Each group has $k!$ permutations.

The total number of permutations for the groups is $(n-1)!$.

So we get

$$ \frac{k!^n (n-1)!}{(nk-1)!}. $$


Case $n=3$ and $k=2$ gives

$$ \frac{2!^3 (3-1)!}{(2\cdot3-1)!} = \frac{2}{15}. $$

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