A group of 8 friends, including 4 men and 4 women, is going to sit at a rectangular table. If the men and women must alternate seats, in how many different ways can they be seated?
622
450
576
966
To calculate the number of different ways the group of 8 friends can be seated at a rectangular table, with the men and women alternating seats, we can treat the men and women as separate entities.
Since there are 4 men and 4 women, we can arrange them in the following pattern: MWMWMWMW.
Now, let's consider the number of ways to arrange the men among themselves and the women among themselves.
The number of ways to arrange the men among themselves is given by 4 !, and the number of ways to arrange the women among themselves is also given by 4 !.
Therefore, the total number of different ways to arrange the group of friends at the rectangular table, with the men and women alternating seats, is:
Therefore, there are 576 different ways the group of 8 friends can be seated at a rectangular table, with the men and women alternating seats.
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