An orchestra has 2 violinists, 4 cellists, and 2 harpists. Assume that players of each instrument have to sit together, but they can sit in any position in their own group. In how many ways can the conductor seat the members of the orchestra in a line?

Question

michele_laino · Answer

I'm very sorry, I'm not good with such subject!

perl · Answer

You can break the problem down into parts. 
How many ways can you arrange 
V, C, H 
which represent the violinists, cellists, and harpists as groups

Then multiply by the number of ways you can arrange within a group. 
v1, v2 

c1,c2,c3,c4

h1, h2

perl · Answer

Do you follow so far?

anonymous · Answer

yes

anonymous · Answer

thank you for taking on this question

fibonaccichick666 · Answer

A way to think about this is first, how many ways can you make a line of 3 people?  Once you have that then, we can investigate the categories/groups arrangements.