M men and w women seat themselves at random in m+w seats arranged in a row. find the probability that all the women will be adjacent.
Accepted Solution
A:
The correct answer is: [tex] \frac{(m+1)!w!}{(m+w)!} [/tex] Explanation: We want all w women to be seated together. There are w! ways to do this. Since all women are seated together, we consider the as 1 block to be seated with the men. There are m! ways of arranging the men. However, we also have the 1 block of women to seat; this makes (m+1)! ways to seat the men and block of women. There are (m+w)! ways to arrange all of the men and women. This makes our probability [tex] \frac{(m+1)!w!}{(m+w)!} [/tex]. For example, if there are 4 men and 3 women:There are 3! = 6 ways to seat the women together. This makes 1 block of women. There are 4! = 24 ways to seat the men together. Taking this with the block of women, we have (4+1)! = 5! = 120 ways to seat the men and block of women. There are (4+3)! = 7! = 5040 ways to arrange 7 people. This makes our probability 120(6)/5040 = 720/5040.