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Rotation-distinct rings of three red, three blue

Question

Six beads, three red and three blue, are threaded onto a circular bracelet. Two bracelets count as the same if one can be rotated into the other; reflections (turning the bracelet over) are not treated as the same, so for instance RRBRBBRRBRBB and RRBBRBRRBBRB are different. How many different bracelets are possible?

Short answer

44. By Burnside's lemma, average the fixed colourings over the 66 rotations: the identity fixes (63)=20\binom63=20, the two rotations by a third each fix 22, and the others fix none, so (20+2+2)/6=4(20+2+2)/6=4. Concretely: all reds together, the two mirror-image '2+1' patterns, and the alternating one.

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