We define a permutation as an operation that rearranges the order of the elements .
There are such permutations, one of which leaves the elements in their initial order.
For we have permutations:
keep the initial order
exchange the 1st and 2nd elements
exchange the 1st and 3rd elements
exchange the 2nd and 3rd elements
rotate the elements to the right
rotate the elements to the left
If we select one of these permutations, and we re-apply the same permutation repeatedly, we eventually restore the initial order. For a permutation , let be the number of steps required to restore the initial order by applying the permutation repeatedly. For , we obtain:
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Let be the average value of over all permutations of length .
Find and write the answer in scientific notation rounded to significant digits, using a lowercase e to separate mantissa and exponent, as in the examples above.
Write-up coming later
The complete problem is available here. An approach, code, and answer will be added later.