Maths Olympiad Prep

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UKMT Pink Kangaroo, 2016

Combinatorics Difficulty 2.0 Junior Find the answer United Kingdom

Angelo wrote down the word TEAM. He then swapped two adjacent letters around and wrote down the new order of the letters. He proceeded in this way until he obtained the word MATE. What is the least number of swaps that Angelo could have used?

(A) 33 (B) 44 (C) 55 (D) 66 (E) 77

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