Mississippi

How many rearrangements of the word MISSISSIPPI are palindromes?


The answer is 30.

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2 solutions

Michael Chen
Nov 18, 2016

Palindrome- Word that can be read the same forwards as backwards

MISSISSIPPI is a 11 letter word that contains 1M, 4I, 4S, 2P

Because the number of letters is odd and there is an odd number of M's, the M must go in the middle.

_ _ _ _ _ M _ _ _ _ _

After that, the 5 letters on either side of the word will be a mirror image of each other. Thus, it is only necessary to consider one side of the word in the calculation as the other side is fixed once the letters on the left are chosen.

So there are 5 spots and 5 letters, two of which repeat twice (S and I), yielding the following calculation:

5 ! 2 ! × 2 ! × 1 ! \frac {5!}{2! \times 2! \times 1!} = 30

Thus there are 30 possible ways to rearrange the word MISSISSIPPI such that each word is palindromic.

30 arrangements of the letter but that dont form actual words!!?

Tekno Notice - 4 years, 6 months ago

trick question. Each of the repeated letters comes from a unique location, so technically qualifies as a rearrangement, which usually implies permutation, not combination. Should at least be a hint.

Tom Capizzi - 4 years, 6 months ago

There are zero "words". Just because the letters are rearranged does not make it a "word"

Michael McKinnon - 4 years, 6 months ago

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"Words" in combinatorics doesn't have to be in your Oxford Dictionary or Official Scrabble Dictionary or whatever. Words are letters lined up.

William Nathanael Supriadi - 4 years, 6 months ago
Zarif Hossain
Nov 7, 2019

You have 1M, 2p, 4i, 4s. take 1 m in middle and both side you have 1p, 2s, 2i. You can do this in 5 ! 2 ! 2 ! \frac{5!}{2! * 2!}

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