0

The question: Given 6 beads which consist of red, blue, yellow, green, white and black. How many ways can a rings of beads be formed?

I'm confused by the question, would this mean this is asking for the combination or permutation of the colors above?

Chairman
  • 11
  • Should all the beads be included into the ring? Do mirrored rings count the same or different? (rotated should count the same so you may think e.g. blue bead is always the 1st one) – Alexey Burdin Jun 02 '20 at 05:11
  • @AlexeyBurdin I do not know because the question above is just ends there with no other specific instructions. – Chairman Jun 02 '20 at 05:39
  • You might be interested in reading about what Wikipedia has to say about "necklaces" and "bracelets" in combinatorics. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necklace_(combinatorics) – awkward Jun 02 '20 at 15:09
  • The question is too ambiguous. Unless whoever gave you this question defined what a "ring of beads" means, they do not deserve to be given an answer. You should ask them what they mean, because nobody else can read their mind. – user21820 Jun 13 '20 at 09:26

1 Answers1

0

It is hopefully asking for permutations. $6$ distinct objects can be arranged in a circle in $5! $ ways. But, in case of a ring, we don't count clockwise and anti-clockwise as different arrangements. So, the no. of rings that can be made is $$\frac{5! }{2}=60$$

SarGe
  • 3,010