Vowel-Consonant Arrangements and Non-Adjacent Vowels

Click For Summary

Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the arrangement of vowels and consonants in a sequence where vowels must not be adjacent. Participants explore different methods for calculating the total number of distinguishable arrangements of letters, including considerations for duplicate letters.

Discussion Character

  • Mathematical reasoning
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant outlines a method for arranging vowels in specific positions (1,3,5,7) and (2,4,6,8), calculating 12 arrangements for vowels and consonants each, leading to a total of 288 arrangements.
  • Another participant suggests a different approach using total permutations of all letters and subtracting cases where vowels are adjacent, proposing a formula involving factorials.
  • A participant points out that the proposed method may overlook cases where two vowels are adjacent but not all vowels are together.
  • Another participant presents a method involving gaps created by consonants to calculate arrangements, leading to a total of 720 arrangements.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing views on the methods for calculating arrangements, with some supporting the initial approach and others challenging its completeness. The discussion remains unresolved as multiple competing methods are presented.

Contextual Notes

Some methods assume specific arrangements or overlook certain cases, leading to potential discrepancies in total counts. The discussion highlights the complexity of the problem and the need for careful consideration of conditions.

DaalChawal
Messages
85
Reaction score
0
442f7fef-82a2-4dca-a2d0-5cf5786a7c95.jpg


Question itself and options 1 and 3.
 
Mathematics news on Phys.org
There are 2 sets of letter positions vowels can be placed in such that they are never adjacent.
These are letters $$(1,3,5,7)$$, and letters $$(2,4,6,8)$$.

Within these slots there would be $$4!=24$$ arrangements of the 4 vowels however there are 2 of the letter "A".
Thus we have $$\dfrac{4!}{2!} = 12$$ different arrangements of the 4 vowels.

Now we have 4 consonants to arrange, two of which are the letter "R".

This is essentially the same situation as with the vowels. Arranging 4 letters, 1 of which is duplicated, into 4 positions.
So as before there are 12 ways to arrange these consonants.

So gathering all this up with have

$$2 \cdot 12 \cdot 12 = 288$$ distinguishable arrangements with no vowels adjacent to one another.
 
2) is simple. Just look at how many valid digit choices you have for each digit of a 3 digit number.
Note that 0 is not included as a possible digit and so we can't use the number 100 anyway so we don't have
to worry that we don't use every 3 digit number.

3) Use stars and bars

4) Is a bit trickier. A triangle can have at most 2 colinear points. Consider two groups.
The group of 5 colinear points, and the the group of the other 7 points.
There are 3 ways to form these triangles.

i) use 3 points from the set of 7
ii) use 2 points from the set of 7 and 1 point from the set of 5
iii) use 2 points from the set of 5 and 1 point from the set of 7

We can read off the number of arrangements of these simply enough to get a total of

$$\dbinom{7}{3}\dbinom{5}{0} + \dbinom{7}{2}\dbinom{5}{1} + \dbinom{7}{1}\dbinom{5}{2} = 210$$
 
Thank you so much!

romsek said:
So gathering all this up with have
Instead of this method If I solve like this I think I'm doing some error. Can you please help

Total permutation of all 8 letters = $\frac{8!}{2! 2!}$ = (a)

and now let's assume all the vowels are together so ways will be = $\frac{4!}{2!}$ = (b)

Now the required answer is
$a - b$
 
DaalChawal said:
and now let's assume all the vowels are together so ways will be = $\frac{4!}{2!}$ = (b)

You are omitting all the cases where two vowels are adjacent but the others are not, or where two pairs of vowels are adjacent but separated by a consonant.
 
Thanks, I understood it now.
 
@romsek
What is wrong in this method?
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ (Example --> _R_R_I_M_ There are 5 gaps)
Number of vowels to be never adjacent = (Number of ways in which the 4 consonants can be arranged in their designated places) × (Number of ways in which the 4 vowels can be arranged in the 5 possible places) = $\frac{4!}{2! }$ . $5 \choose 4$ . $\frac{4!}{2! }$ = 720
 

Similar threads

Replies
1
Views
1K
  • · Replies 5 ·
Replies
5
Views
1K
  • · Replies 1 ·
Replies
1
Views
2K
  • · Replies 8 ·
Replies
8
Views
8K
  • · Replies 2 ·
Replies
2
Views
2K
  • · Replies 2 ·
Replies
2
Views
2K
Replies
9
Views
2K
  • · Replies 3 ·
Replies
3
Views
2K
  • · Replies 3 ·
Replies
3
Views
2K
  • · Replies 5 ·
Replies
5
Views
2K