Ten points are equally spaced around a circle. They are connected in separate pairs by 5 line segments. How many ways can these line segments be drawn such that at least two pairs of the line segments intersect?
Bonus: Generalise for equally spaced points.
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The number of configurations with zero intersection is the Catalan number C n . The number of configurations with one intersection is ( n − 2 2 n ) , as in your previous problem . The total number of configurations is n ! ( 2 2 n ) ( 2 2 n − 2 ) ⋯ ( 2 2 ) = 2 n n ! ( 2 n ) ! , because the numerator of the left side is the number of ways to sequentially pick pairs of points to connect, and the denominator is the number of ways to pick a given set of pairs. So the answer to the question is 2 n n ! ( 2 n ) ! − C n − ( n − 2 2 n ) , which for n = 5 gives 9 4 5 − 4 2 − 1 2 0 = 7 8 3 .