An arrangement machine works on an input line of words and numbers in steps. The numbers never move at all: they stay in the very places they occupy in the input. In each step every word moves one place to the right along the places held by words, and the word standing in the last of those places comes round to the first of them. The machine stops as soon as the line reads exactly as the input line did. Input: 63 meera 27 arjun 54 kavya. How many steps are needed to complete the rearrangement of the above input?

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Accepted Answer

3. The three words meera, arjun, kavya sit in the 2nd, 4th and 6th places. Step 1: 63 kavya 27 meera 54 arjun. Step 2: 63 arjun 27 kavya 54 meera. Step 3: 63 meera 27 arjun 54 kavya, which is the input line again, so the machine stops after 3 steps. "2" stops one step early, when the line is not yet back to the input. "6" counts one step per element of the line instead of one per word. "4" would be right for four words, not three.

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