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Three students are running a race. How many different ways can they come in first, second, and third?
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Three students are running a race. How many different ways can they come in first, second, and third?\newlineAnswer:

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Q. Three students are running a race. How many different ways can they come in first, second, and third?\newlineAnswer:
  1. Understand the Problem: Understand the problem.\newlineWe need to find the number of different permutations of three students finishing a race in first, second, and third place. A permutation is an arrangement of all or part of a set of objects, with regard to the order of the arrangement. Since the order in which the students finish the race matters, we are dealing with permutations.
  2. Calculate Permutations: Calculate the number of permutations.\newlineThe number of permutations of nn distinct objects taken rr at a time is given by the formula:\newlineP(n,r)=n!(nr)!P(n, r) = \frac{n!}{(n - r)!}\newlineIn this case, we have 33 students and we want to arrange all of them, so n=r=3n = r = 3.
  3. Apply Formula: Apply the permutation formula.\newlineUsing the formula from Step 22, we calculate:\newlineP(3,3)=3!(33)!P(3, 3) = \frac{3!}{(3 - 3)!}\newlineP(3,3)=3!0!P(3, 3) = \frac{3!}{0!}\newlineWe know that 3!3! (33 factorial) is 3×2×1=63 \times 2 \times 1 = 6 and 0!0! (00 factorial) is defined to be 11.\newlineSo, P(3,3)=61P(3, 3) = \frac{6}{1}\newlineP(3,3)=6P(3, 3) = 6
  4. Conclude Solution: Conclude the solution.\newlineThere are 66 different ways the three students can come in first, second, and third in the race.

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