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A102263 Denominators of probabilities in gift exchange problem with n people. 3

%I #19 Dec 11 2021 02:11:23

%S 1,4,36,144,1800,43200,705600,705600,2116800,127008000,23051952000,

%T 6638962176000,280496151936000,31415569016832000,471233535252480000,

%U 471233535252480000,54474596675186688000,3268475800511201280000

%N Denominators of probabilities in gift exchange problem with n people.

%C n friends organize a gift exchange. The n names are put into a hat and the first person draws one. If she picks her own name, then she returns it to the bag and draws again, repeating until she has a name that is not her own. Then the second person draws, again returning his own name if it is drawn. This continues down the line. What is the probability p(n) that when the n-th person draws, only her own name will be left in the bag?

%C I heard about the problem from Gary Thompson at Grove City College in PA.

%H Jon E. Schoenfield, <a href="/A102263/b102263.txt">Table of n, a(n) for n = 2..389</a>

%H Math Forum at Drexel, <a href="http://mathforum.org/kb/message.jspa?messageID=6667330&amp;tstart=0">A variant on the "Secret Santa"</a>

%F See A102262 for formula for p(n).

%e p(2) through p(10) are 0, 1/4, 5/36, 19/144, 203/1800, 4343/43200, 63853/705600, 58129/705600, 160127/2116800.

%Y Cf. A102262, A136300.

%K nonn,frac

%O 2,2

%A _Jerrold Grossman_, Feb 17 2005

%E More terms from _Jon E. Schoenfield_, Sep 30 2006

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Last modified April 24 20:08 EDT 2024. Contains 371963 sequences. (Running on oeis4.)