2009 AMC 12B Problems/Problem 21
Problem
Ten women sit in 
seats in a line. All of the get up and then reseat themselves using all seats, each sitting in the seat she was in before or a seat next to the one she occupied before. In how many ways can the women be reseated?
Solution 1
Notice that either a woman stays in her own seat after the rearrangement, or two adjacent women swap places. Thus, our answer is counting the number of ways to arrange 1x1 and 2x1 blocks to form a 1x10 rectangle. This can be done via casework depending on the number of 2x1 blocks. The cases of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 2x1 blocks correspond to 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 0 1x1 blocks, and so the answer is
![\[\binom{10}{0} + \binom{9}{1} + \binom{8}{2} + \binom{7}{3} + \binom{6}{4} + \binom{5}{5} = 1 + 9 + 28 + 35 + 15 + 1 = 89.\]](http://latex.artofproblemsolving.com/1/f/a/1faf1416d0bd88d55cf6415625e0a4e549d315ed.png)
Finally, there is the case where no one moves, so the total is 90.
See Also
| 2009 AMC 12B (Problems • Answer Key • Resources) | |
| Preceded by Problem 20 |
Followed by Problem 22 |
| 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 • 22 • 23 • 24 • 25 | |
| All AMC 12 Problems and Solutions | |
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