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Rearranging a word
How many distinct strings can be made by rearranging all the letters of , counting strings that look identical only once?
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Hint
Start with the arrangements of distinct letters, then correct for the letter that repeats.
Solution
- The word has letters, and only appears more than once, exactly times.
- If all letters were distinct there would be arrangements.
- Swapping the copies of gives the same string, so each string was counted times.
- The count is .
Answer: