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Six new employees, two of whom are married to each other, are to be assigned six desks that are lined up in a row. If the assignment of employees to desks is made randomly, what is the probability that the married couple will have nonadjacent desks?

Answers (1)

Given: total number of employees = 6

They can be arranged in 6 ways:

Thus, n (S) = 6!

                = 6 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 1

                = 720

Now, there are 5 different ways to select two adjacent desks for married couples:

(1,2), (2,3), (3,4), (4,5), (5,6)

They can be arranged in two ways in the two desks, & the other persons can be arranged in four ways

Thus, the number of ways = 5 x 2! X 4!

                                    = 5 x 2 x 1 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1

                                    = 240

Thus,

The number . of ways in which married couples occupy non-adjacent desks

= 6! – 240

= 720 – 240

= 480

= n (E)

 Required probability = number of favourable outcomes/total number of outcomes

= n (E) / n (S)   

= 480 / 720

= 2 / 3

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