How many ways to arrange 35 distinct books on 3 distinct shelves when some of the shelves can be emp

flightwingsd2

flightwingsd2

Answered question

2022-06-28

How many ways to arrange 35 distinct books on 3 distinct shelves when some of the shelves can be empty?
How many ways to arrange 35 distinct books on 3 distinct shelves when some of the shelves can be empty?
Here's is what I did
There are 3 choices for each of 35 books. So I think the answer will be 3 35 .
I feel like it's wrong can anyone please confirm my answer? Thanks for all the feedback in advance.

Answer & Explanation

Nia Molina

Nia Molina

Beginner2022-06-29Added 21 answers

Step 1
In your attempt, you chose which books were placed on which shelves. However, we also have to arrange the books on those shelves.
If there were only one shelf, we could arrange the 35 distinct books in 35! ways. However, we have to take into account the number of ways we could divide the books among the three shelves. To do so, we arrange the 35 distinct books and two indistinguishable dividers. The books to the left of the first divider, if any, go on the top shelf; the books between the dividers, if any, go on the middle shelf; and the books after the second divider, if any, go on the bottom shelf.
Step 2
There are 35 + 2 = 37 positions to fill. Choose two of them for the dividers. Arrange the 35 books in the remaining 35 positions.
The number of admissible ways to arrange 35 distinct distinct books on three distinct shelves if some of the shelves may be empty is ( 37 2 ) 35 ! = 37 ! 2 ! 35 ! 35 ! = 37 ! 2 !

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