In how many ways 3 flags of colors black, purple & yellow can be arranged at the corners of an equilateral triangle?
In how many ways 3 flags of colors black, purple & yellow can be arranged at the corners of an equilateral triangle?
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combinatorics
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0I can see a considerable number of possible interpretations of this question. For a start, it could be three distinguisable flags (one black, one purple, and one yellow) or three indistinguishable tricolour flags. Then there may or may not be an implied constraint that each corner has precisely one flag positioned at it. Finally the corners or the triangle may or may not be distinguishable. – 2011-11-23
2 Answers
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There is only a very finite amount of possibilities... Try to find out the distinct cases:
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1@DavidMitra: If "Geometry is making correct deductions about incorrectly drawn figures", then maybe combinatorics is "correctly counting incorrectly listed possibilities." (-: – 2011-11-23
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This appears to me as a problem of circular permutation.
Fix one flag of any color (say black) at a particular corner of the specified equilateral triangle, then the other two flags (purple and yellow) can be arranged in $2!$ ways at the other two corners. Hence, the answer should be $4$.
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02! isn't 4. The answer is either 2 or 6 depending on what the question is (which isn't clear). – 2011-11-23