How many different ways can 6 people be seated at a round table?
Practice Questions
Q1
How many different ways can 6 people be seated at a round table?
720
120
600
480
Questions & Step-by-Step Solutions
How many different ways can 6 people be seated at a round table?
Correct Answer: 120
Step 1: Understand that seating people at a round table is different from a straight line because the arrangement is circular.
Step 2: Realize that when arranging people in a circle, one person's position can be fixed to avoid counting the same arrangement multiple times.
Step 3: Fix one person in a seat. This means you only need to arrange the remaining 5 people.
Step 4: Calculate the number of ways to arrange the remaining 5 people. This is done using the factorial of the number of people, which is 5! (5 factorial).
Step 5: Calculate 5! = 5 × 4 × 3 × 2 × 1 = 120.
Step 6: Conclude that there are 120 different ways to seat 6 people at a round table.
Circular Permutations – In circular arrangements, one position is fixed to account for rotations, leading to (n-1)! arrangements.