Larry, Michael, and Doug have five donuts to share. If any

Consider this: we have 5 donuts \(d\) and 2 separators \(|\), like: \(ddddd||\). How many permutations (arrangements) of these symbols are possible? Total of 7 symbols (5+2=7), out of which 5 \(d\)'s and 2 \(|\)'s are identical, so \(\frac{7!}{5!2!}=21\).

We'll get combinations like: \(dd|d|dd\) this would mean that Larry got 2 donuts, Michael got 1 donut and Doug got 2 donuts, so to the left of the first separator are Larry's donuts, between the separators are Michael's donuts and to the right of the second separator are Doug's donuts

Answer: A.

This can be done with direct formula as well:

The total number of ways of dividing n identical items (5 donuts in our case) among r persons or objects (3 persons in our case), each one of whom, can receive 0, 1, 2 or more items (from zero to 5 in our case) is \({n+r-1}_C_{r-1}\).

In our case we'll get: \({n+r-1}_C_{r-1}={5+3-1}_C_{3-1}={7}C2=\frac{7!}{5!2!}=21\).

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