For all Brilliant Members

BRILLIANT

How many words are there can be made by arranging the letters of the upper word? By Permutations with Repetition , we know there are a total of 9 ! 2 ! 2 ! = 90720 \dfrac{9!}{2!2!}=90720 words.

But that's very easy. I need something more complicated.

How many words are there can be made by arranging the letters of the word BRILLIANT such that:

  • The two L 's cannot stand next to each other, and

  • At least 1 vowel stands between the two L 's.


The answer is 54432.

This section requires Javascript.
You are seeing this because something didn't load right. We suggest you, (a) try refreshing the page, (b) enabling javascript if it is disabled on your browser and, finally, (c) loading the non-javascript version of this page . We're sorry about the hassle.

1 solution

Tran Quoc Dat
Apr 22, 2016

Relevant wiki: Permutations with Repetition

Instead of counting number of words satisfy the condition, we'll count number of words don't satisfy the condition, and calculate the complement.

Note that the word BRILLIANT has 4 4 consonants other than L , each is repeated once only. So, words don't satisfy the condition are words with no more than 4 4 letters between the L 's.

Consider the numbers 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 . What we'll do is to replace the numbers with the letters.

If the 2 L 's stand next to each other, there will be a total of 8 × 7 ! 2 ! = 20160 8 \times \dfrac{7!}{2!} = 20160 (remember there are 2 I 's, so divide by 2 ! 2! ).

If there is exactly 1 consonant stand between the 2 L 's (in the form L - consonant - L ), there will be a total of 7 × 4 × 6 ! 2 ! = 10080 7 \times 4 \times \dfrac{6!}{2!} = 10080 .

If there is exactly 2 consonants stand between the 2 L 's (in the form L - consonant x2 - L ), there will be a total of 6 × P 2 4 × 5 ! 2 ! = 4320 6 \times P_2^4 \times \dfrac{5!}{2!} = 4320 .

If there is exactly 3 consonants stand between the 2 L 's (in the form L - consonant x3 - L ), there will be a total of 5 × P 3 4 × 4 ! 2 ! = 1440 5 \times P_3^4 \times \dfrac{4!}{2!} = 1440 .

Lastly, if there is exactly 4 consonants stand between the 2 L 's (in the form L - consonant x4 - L ), there will be a total of 4 × 4 ! × 3 ! 2 ! = 288 4 \times 4! \times \dfrac{3!}{2!} = 288 .

Add all of them up, the number of words don't satisfy the condition is 36288 36288 .

Therefore, the answer is 90720 36288 = 54432 90720 - 36288 = \boxed{54432} .

0 pending reports

×

Problem Loading...

Note Loading...

Set Loading...