Question

how many ways can a president, a vice-president and a secretary be chosen from 12 members of a club assuming that one person cannot hold more than one position?

Answer 1

Answer: 1320 ways.

Explanation:

For this problem you should use the formula for variations in combinatorics. You use this when choosing a few objects from a group in which the order of the objects is of importance:

`P^(12) _(3)=(12!)/((12-3)!)=(12 \cdot 11\cdot 10\cdot ...\cdot 1)/(9 \cdot 8 \cdot ... \cdot 1) = 12 \cdot 11 \cdot 10 = 1320`

where ! stands for factorial.