The Question Writing Commitee consists of seven volunteers from around the country who are amazingly dedicated to the Mathcounts program. This past weekend, was the last meeting for this particular group of question writers. Before the meeting, they are put into pairs, eith the seventh member pairing up with a Mathcounts staff person to make a total of four pairs. When we entered the workroom, there were four pairs of chairs around a large table. (There were two chairs together, and then a lot of space and then two chairs together and then a lot of space, and so on.) Though we could sit anywhere, we obviously had to sit with the person who was our pre-assigned partner. In how many ways could the eight people have sat around the table ensuring that each pre-assigned pair was sitting at a pre-assigned set pair of the chairs.?

Question

I REALLY don't get this at all. PLEASE help.
Thanks, I appriciate it.

Answer 1

I answered basically the same question (without all the unecessary words) yesterday. Did you ask it?

Answer 2

See this previous answer of mine:
http://www.jiskha.com/display.cgi?id=1201789166