Question

Ten people compete in a race. In how many ways can the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place awards be distributed, if only one person receives each award?

Answer 1

You can read up on combinations and permutations here: http://www.mathsisfun.com/combinatorics/combinations-permutations.html

I could be wrong, but I believe in this case since there are 10 people running the race and 3 ways to place, and because order matters, you're dealing with permutations. Permutations are written in the form nPm where n and m are numbers (usually in subscript), or in this case 10P3. This means you multiply the first three numbers of 10! which is 10*9*8 = 720.