The letters of the word 'QUESTION' are arranged in a row at random. The probability that there are exactly…

The letters of the word 'QUESTION' are arranged in a row at random. The probability that there are exactly two letters between $\mathrm{Q}$ and $\mathrm{S}$ is
  1. $\frac{1}{14}$
  2. $\frac{5}{7}$
  3. $\frac{1}{7}$
  4. $\frac{5}{28}$

Solution

The given word is 'QUESTION', let E be the event that there are exactly two letters between $Q$ and $S$. Here, number of sample space, $n(S)=8 \text { ! }$ number of possible events, $n(E)={ }^6 P_2 \times 2 ! \times 5 \text { ! }$ $\therefore \quad$ Required probability $\begin{aligned} & P(E)=\frac{n(E)}{n(S)}=\frac{{ }^6 P_2 \times 2 ! \times 5 !}{8 !}=\frac{6 ! \times 2 ! \times 5 !}{4 ! \times 8 !} \\ & =\frac{6 ! \times 2 ! \times 5 ! \times 4 !}{4 ! \times 7 \times 8 \times 6 !}=\frac{2 \times 5}{7 \times 8}=\frac{5}{28} \end{aligned}$

Asked in: AP EAMCET 2015

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