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avatar+355 

Find the number of ways of choosing three circles below, so that no two circles are next to each other.

There are 12 circles, in the shape of a circle.

[asy]
unitsize(1 cm);

int i;

for (i = 0; i <= 11; ++i) {
draw(Circle(2*dir(360/12*i),0.3));
label(string(i + 1), 2*dir(90 - 360/12*i));
}
[/asy]

 Apr 23, 2024
 #1
avatar+1911 
-1

We can solve this problem by considering the empty spaces between the circles. There are 11 spaces between the circles, since there are 12 circles forming a circle.

 

Since no two chosen circles can be next to each other, the chosen circles must correspond to every other empty space. There are C(11,3) = 165​ ways to choose 3 empty spaces out of 11.

 Apr 24, 2024

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