dave13 wrote:
Whats wrong with my reasoning
I don't see where you've accounted for the restriction that the two sisters be between two brothers, and if you don't account for that, your answer will be much too big.
But the answer to the question, at a quick glance, I think should be 20,160, as written (or perhaps 9 times that, depending on whether we decide this is a circular permutation question). The solution above answers a different question than what is asked:
Bunuel wrote:
Nine family members: 5 grandchildren (3 brothers and 2 sisters) and their 4 grandparents are to be seated around a circular table. How many different seating arrangements are possible so that 2 sisters are seated between any two of the three brothers?
The phrase "so that 2 sisters are seated between any two of the three brothers", as written, means: if you pick
any two brothers, you should find the two sisters
somewhere between them. As the question is written, we should be counting an arrangement like this one as a valid arrangement:
BBGSGSGGB
for example, because if you pick any two brothers, then you'll find the two sisters between them somewhere (in some direction around the table). And if that's what the question means, in half of all possible arrangements you find the two sisters between any pair of brothers (because of the ten ways to arrange just the brothers and sisters, in half of them, SSBBB, BSSBB, BBSSB, BBBSS and SBBBS you satisfy the condition), which is how I got the answer above.
The question means to ask something very different from what it says; it means to ask how many arrangements are possible when the two sisters are seated *immediately* between *some* pair of brothers.
As written, the question is actually not even asking about circular permutations. The fact that things are in a circle does not, on its own, make a question into a circular permutation problem. It's only a circular permutation question if our concern is only about how things are arranged relative to each other, and if we're unconcerned about the specific seat each person is assigned.