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Girls joining a ring of boys

Question

Fourteen boys, Charlie among them, stand in a circle. Ten girls then join, each taking a spot in one of the gaps between neighbouring boys, with at most one girl per gap; all such placements are equally likely. What is the probability that Charlie still has a boy on both sides?

Short answer

691\tfrac{6}{91}. There are 1414 gaps and the girls occupy 1010 of them, so (1410)\binom{14}{10} equally likely choices. Charlie keeps two boy neighbours only if both gaps beside him stay empty, so the girls must use 10 of the other 12 gaps: (1210)/(1410)=661001=691\binom{12}{10}/\binom{14}{10}=\tfrac{66}{1001}=\tfrac6{91}.

Adapted from QuantQuestions.io; question and answer rewritten by SelfMadeQuant.com.

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