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James ruse 03 trial perm question (1 Viewer)

Li0n

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All the letters of the word ENCUMBRANCE are arranged in a line.
Find the total number of arrangements, which contain all the vowels in
alphabetical order but separated by at least one consonant.

Yeah its hard :)

Good luck
 

steverulz55

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88200 ways
i wrote out all the combinations
took me some time

i could scan it for you, but that will be like over 50 pages
 
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Rorix

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i only got 88199 by inspection:( i must have missed one
 

Li0n

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:/
the only way is by inspection? no special pattern involved?
if its just inspection then the question isnt as hard as i thought it be.
 

Estel

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ngai said:
# ways = 88200 (by inspection)
steverulz55 said:
88200 ways
i wrote out all the combinations
took me some time

i could scan it for you, but that will be like over 50 pages
Rorix said:
i only got 88199 by inspection:( i must have missed one
Archman said:
by careful inspection, 88200. :D
88200, by inspection and balance of probabilities :)
 

Rorix

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huh how come im getting 88201 now.......


oh wait wooops wrote the one i was missing twice:(
 

mojako

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Li0n said:
:/
the only way is by inspection? no special pattern involved?
if its just inspection then the question isnt as hard as i thought it be.
isnt it harder when u need to do it by inspection???
has anyone seen a pattern now?
Im curious..
 

Li0n

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mojako said:
isnt it harder when u need to do it by inspection???
has anyone seen a pattern now?
Im curious..
finding a pattern involves a heap of logic. inspection, is just inspection.
which is easy if you know what the hell your doing

i saw a pattern but i didnt know how to implement it kinda
 

ND

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Here's my solution: (btw, what exactly does "by inspecion" mean?)

Let C denote a consonant and V a vowel. First lay out the Cs:

C C C C C C C

There are now 8 gaps for the Vs, and since there are 4 Vs there are 8C4 ways of distributing the 4 Vs into the 8 gaps. So if all the Cs were identical and all the Vs were identical, there would be 8C4 ways of arranging them. But since there are 7 consonants, with 2 pairs being identical, there are 7!/(2!*2!) ways of arranging them, and since the two E's are indistinguishable, there is 1 way of arranging the vowels. So the answer is:

8C4*7!/(2!*2!)*1 = 88200
 

mojako

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can you explain why there is 1 way of arranging the vowels? (if we follow what you did for consonants, wouldnt it be 4!/2!?)
EDIT: I forgot they're in alphabetical order.

also, the question says: "which contain all the vowels in alphabetical order but separated by at least one consonant"
What if there are two vowels which are separated by 2 consonants? Maybe you've covered that, I just can't see how :D
EDIT: Ok, now I see it (thinking while trying to sleep)

Anyway I think the inspection thing is just a joke :p

Thanks for your help :)
 
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withoutaface

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It is by inspection for the sufficiently intelligent (ie top of ruse and imo gold medallist), they just look at the problem and it just jumps out at them:p
 

mojako

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withoutaface said:
It is by inspection for the sufficiently intelligent (ie top of ruse and imo gold medallist), they just look at the problem and it just jumps out at them:p
hmm is that what inspection means?

I tought it meant.. writing out all possible combinations as steverulz said
 

withoutaface

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mojako said:
hmm is that what inspection means?

I tought it meant.. writing out all possible combinations as steverulz said
It's just another way of saying: I can do this in my head and cbf writing down the steps, so heres the answer.

Like when you factorise a quartic, I know I hardly ever do that by polynomial division.
 

mojako

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but... ngai should give the factorials or C notation...
it just takes a few extra characters :p
 

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