TITLE: Letters of "About"
QUESTION [5 upvotes]: If the letters of the word "about" are placed at random in a row, find the probability that three successive letters will be vowels.
Firstly, not quite sure how to set this up. Secondly, would this involve combinations and permutations? This is for an Algebra 1 class. Thanks!

REPLY [3 votes]: put the vowel sound word (a,o,u) in a group then the word arranging be (a, o, u) b and t , then  the combination is 3! and the vowel sound word (a,o,u) can also arrange in 3! combination. So the possible arrangement is 3! x 3!= 6 x 6 = 36