There is a rickety old carousel, with 24 horses equally spaced around the edge of a disc. There are at least two things wrong with it: one is that the horses in positions A, B, C, D, E, F and G are broken and not safe to ride; another is that the carousel needs to be perfectly balanced around the centre of the disc, otherwise it won’t go round. This means that when there are two children wishing to ride, they would have to be positioned in diametrically opposite positions, eg, A and M, in order that the centre of gravity is at the centre of the disc. If there were three children they could be at positions A, I and Q.

On this particular day, nine children wish to ride the carousel. Where do they need to be positioned such that the centre of gravity is at the centre of the disc, and that positions A to G are unoccupied?