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How many ways are there to permute the integers from 1 to 1000 under the condition that two consecutive numbers must have different parity?

I know that there are two possible cases: either the sequence starts with an even or it is starts with an odd. Then the sequence alternates parity all the way through.

But I am not sure how to mathematically count the permutations of evens and permutations of odds. Like what formula do I use?

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  • $\begingroup$ Hint: The answer will be equal to 2 x (number of ways to arrange 500 (even) numbers) x (number of ways to arrange 500 (odd) numbers). And of course the 2nd and 3rd of those numbers are equal. $\endgroup$
    – Paul
    Commented Jan 21, 2020 at 17:07

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Of the $1000$ integers from $1$ to $1000$, half (i.e. $500$) of them are even and the other half are odd. Also, one only needs to know three things: the permutation of the even numbers, the permutation of the odd numbers, and whether the first term is even or odd. The answer is therefore $2 \cdot (500!)^2$.

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