Question

Fifteen freshmen are sitting in a circle around a table, but the course assistant (who remains standing)
has made only six copies of today’s handout. No freshman should get more than one handout, and any
freshman who does not get one should be able to read a neighbor’s. If the freshmen are distinguishable
but the handouts are not, how many ways are there to distribute the six handouts subject to the above
conditions

Answer 1

found it here http://goodmathsproblems.blogspot.com/2011/07/freshmens-problem.html

Answer 2

it too difficult to understand

Answer 3

well that blog has a good collection of questions there

Answer 4

well its still unanswered

Answer 5

lol wow what useful answers :P i don't know, either, sorry! keen to find out though!

Answer 6

well there might be the email of the person there ask him :D

Answer 7

(giving it a go at the moment.. will let you know if i get it...)

Answer 8

ty

Answer 9

do you have a final answer to go off?? ... is it 30? lol

Answer 10

w8
i guess its more than 50

Answer 11

really....?

say with this diagram (sorry its so rubbish) that every space represents a student (total 15)

each dot represents a handout

so there is one extra handout, if we take this situation (the least amount of handouts so that every student can see one)

from this, there is an extra 10 places where the 6th handout can go

rotate the students, then, two places to the left or right to get the other possible 'minimal' situations, and add then another 10 possibilities for each rotation

you then get 3 x 10 possibilities before ending up with the same as you started, and since the students are distinguishable but the handouts are not, further rotations etc are redundant...

where is my logic going astray, if you guess there is more than 50??