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A high security research lab requires the researchers to set a pass key sequence based on the scan of the five fingers of their left hands. When an employee first joins the lab, her fingers are scanned in an order of her choice, and then when she wants to re-enter the facility, she has to scan the five fingers in the same sequence.
The lab authorities are considering some relaxations of the scan order requirements, since it is observed that some employees often get locked-out because they forget the sequence.
The lab has decided to allow variations of the original sequence so that input of the scanned sequence of five fingers is allowed to vary from the original sequence by one place for any of the fingers. Thus, for example, if TIMRL is the original sequence, then ITRML is also allowed, but LIMRT is not.
How many different sequences are allowed for any given person's original scan?
Input of the scanned sequence of five fingers is allowed to vary from the original sequence by one place for any of the fingers. This can be achieved only when two consecutive fingers are interchanged. Let the original sequence be TIMRL
Case 1: Only a set of two consecutive numbers are interchanged.
They can be selected in 5-1 = 4 ways
Case 2: Two sets of two consecutive numbers are interchanged.
(i) TI are interchanged, => (MR, RL) => 2 ways
(ii) IM are interchanged => (RL) => 1 way
Total no of ways possible = 4 + 2 + 1 = 7
Including the original sequence, we get the total number of allowed combinations as 8
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