[cc'd to previous poster; follow-ups in newsgroup suggested]
John Doe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in sci.stat.edu:
>okay I have this question in my Stats textbook, and it should be pretty
>simple, but I can't figure it out..
>
>Four married couple have purchased eight seats in a row for a football game.
>In how many different ways can they be seated if
>(a) each couple is to sit together?
>
>Well since there are eight seats that means two hafta be seated together, so
>that means there are 4 ways of seating the first couple, 3 the next,
>basically 4! which gives 24, but the answer in the back is 384. I don't see
>where my logic is flawed.
This is the right way to post a homework problem: be up front about
the fact that it's homework, and tell us exactly what you did to
solve it.
Your analysis is very good as far as it goes. Since each couple has
to sit together, your starting point is 4P4 = 24.
But now ask yourself, does the first husband sit on his wife's left
or her right? What about the second husband: on which side of his
wife does he sit?
--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Cortland County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com
"Honesty always gives you the advantage of surprise."
-- /Yes, Prime Minister/
.
.
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