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Pairing numbered gloves within one of each other

Question

Ten gloves carry numbers, with two gloves labelled each of 1,2,3,4,51,2,3,4,5. The gloves are split into 55 pairs uniformly at random. What is the probability that in every pair the two numbers differ by no more than 11?

Short answer

145\tfrac1{45}. There are 10!25 5!=945\tfrac{10!}{2^5\,5!}=945 pairings. For the good ones, one glove labelled nn is paired either with its twin (leaving n−1n-1 labels) or with one of the two gloves labelled n−1n-1, which forces the other pair, so gn=gn−1+2gn−2g_n=g_{n-1}+2g_{n-2}. From g0=g1=1g_0=g_1=1 this gives g5=21g_5=21 and probability 21945\tfrac{21}{945}.

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

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