Permutations and Combinations

I am up to the worst thing in math IMO. So if anyone could help it would be appreciated.
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In how many ways can four men and four women be seated in a row of eight seats if:

(a) The women are to be seated together, and the men are to be seated together?
(b) They are to be seated alternately by gender.

my head hurts.

for (a) is it all the women seated together and all them men seated together?

I don't get what you are saying Marwa...?

like do the women have to sit together in groups of 4 or can we gave 2 groups of 2?

The women have to sit together.

well innit 2 for both (a) and (b)
O.O

No...not at all. The women could change seats between them. And so can the men.

ahmed.. do u know the answers???
i got 96 for (a)

and i got a crazy number for (b) O.O

The answer for both is 1152.

kkz..
so we'll start with the order
M1M2M3M4W1W2W3W4
so lets look at the men..
M1M2M3M4 (thats 1)
M1M2M4M3 (thats 2)
M1M3M2M4 (thats 3)
... etc (we'll be here for eva)
so what we do is 4! which equals 24
so there are 24 different ways the men can be seated in

now lets have a look at the women...
4! = 24
so there are 24 different ways to seat the women..
the Q wants all the men together AND all the women together
so using the "and or rule" 24*24=576

but you can have the men on the right OR the men on the left
so again.. using the "and or rule" 576+576 = 1152

capiche?

"but you can have the men on the right OR the men on the left
so again.. using the "and or rule" 576+576 = 1152"

^^^That's the only step that I didn't do. Thanks!

any time man...
=)

Ill give you a "Thanks"

Thanks=3 reps

a) (4*3*2*1*4*3*2*1)*2 = 1152
b) (4*4*3*3*2*2*1*1)*2 = 1152



(a) The women are to be seated together, and the men
are to be seated together?
(b) They are to be seated alternately by
gender.