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[Aptitude] PnC: arrange such that two people Always sitting together?
Q. How many ways can four children be made to stand in a line such that two of them
A and B are always together? (-asked in UPSC Prelims 2010)
Confused? You wont be, after reading this.
DONOT Proceed further, without reading The First article on basic concept of
Permutation and Combination
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Always Sit together

Never Sit together
Demo Questions: Permutation sitting together
Always Select
Never Select
Demo Question: Selection

CASE: ALWAYS SIT TOGETHER

Three couples are standing in the compound of Gokuldham society
Jethalala + Dayaben
Mehta saab + Anjali
Aiyyer + Babita-ji

How many ways can you arrange them in such a way that Jethalal and Dayaben are

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always sitting together?

First, ask yourself, is it a permutation problem or a combination problem?
Since sitting= order matters, this is a permutation problem.
Now let us consider Jethalal and Daya as ONE Person. And theyll sit in one chair.

Now youve the case of 5 Persons and 5 Chairs.

How many ways can use arrange them?
As we saw in the previous article
=5x4x3x2x1
=5! Factorial Ways.
=120
But here order matters, this is a permutation problem so
In the sitting order Daya-Jetha (DJ) and Jetha-Daya (JD) are two different
arrangements.
So now time to split that One person Apart.
How many ways can use sit 2 persons (DJ) in 2 chairs?
2x1
=2 ways.
So, here weve
5 people sit in 5! Ways (=120)
2 people (Daya-Jetha) can sit in 2 ways.
According to fundamental counting
120 x 2 = 240 ways you can arrange this.
(Formula: 2P2 x 5P5); but we dont need to use it.
CASE: DONT SIT TOGETHER
Que. Same 3 couples (=6 persons), 6 chairs. How many ways you can arrange them so
that Dayaben and Jethalal (DJ) never sit together.
Ans.
First how many ways can 6 people sit in 6 chairs?

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=6! Factorial Ways. (=720) ; Solved in the first article.

How many ways can 6 people sit such that Dayaben and Jethalal (DJ) always sit
together
=240 ways ; solved in previous case.
So
Total ways = Cases where DJ together + Cases where DJ not together
720=240 + DJ not together
DJ not together = 720-240=480 ways.
Answer: in 480 ways you can arrange the given 6 people such that Dayaben and
Jethalal dont sit together.
Formula: 6P6 minus [2P2 x 5P5]; but we dont need to use it.
Demo Question:Sitting together
In CSAT Paper II (Aptitude), this can appear under different situations
How many ways can four children be made to stand in a line such that two of
them A and B are always together? (-already asked in UPSC Prelims 2010)
How many ways can you arrange the word Trial where letters T and L are
always together?
How many ways can you arrange the word Trial where letters R and A are
never together?
COMBINATION PROBLEM: ALWAYS SELECT, NEVER SELECT
CASE: ALWAYS SELECT
Director Asit Modi wants to shoot an episode in Kutch. Out of the 6 characters, how
many ways can he select 4 character such that Dayaben and Jethalal (DJ) are always in
the crew?
Here order doesnt matter, only selection matters. After all this is just another
Committee
DJ and JD are one and same.
Now deconstruct the problem
6 people
Select 4.
2 must be selected (DJ)
How many ways can you select Dayaben and Jethalal? : One way.
Matter finish.
Now worry about the remaining 2 vacancies.
weve 4 characters left (Mehta-Anjali, Aiyyar-Babita)
And weve to select two of them.
Classical combination problem. Solve it according to previous article.
(4*3)/(2*1)=6 ways.

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Fundamental Counting
=(Daya Jetha selection ways) x (2 out of 4 selection)
=1 x 6
=6 ways.
Final Answer : Asit Modi can select the characters in 6 ways such that Jethalal,
Dayaben are always in the crew. In case youre curious, here is the graphical
representation of it

CASE: NEVER SELECT in the crew

Q. Select 4 out of 6 given characters for Kutch-episode, such that Dayaben and Jethalal
are never selected in the crew?

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Ans.
Very easy. Drop DJ, how many left?
=4 Characters: Mehta-Anjali, Aiyyar-Babita
4 Characters, 4 vacancies. How many ways can you select? Just one way: youll have
to select all of them! because order doesnt matter, this is a combination problem!
PS. If you wish to solve it by formula: it is 4C4=1; because nCr=1 when n=r.
Demo Questions for CSAT paper II (Aptitude)
A zoo is has to purchase 3 animals out 5 given animals: Zebra, Elephant, Tiger,
Lion and Leopard. How many ways can they do it? (5c3)
^Such that Zebra and Elephant are always selected? (3C1)
^Such that Tiger is never selected? (4C3)

URL to article: http://mrunal.org/2012/03/aptitude-pnc-arrange-such-that-two.html

Posted By Mrunal On 07/03/2012 @ 19:37 In the category Aptitude

7/28/2014 2:15 PM