Final answer:
To determine the number of ways to select a president and vice president from 4 members, you calculate the permutations of 4 choices for president and 3 remaining choices for vice president, which results in 12 different combinations.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question at hand is one of combinatorial mathematics, specifically a permutation problem since the order of selection is important. The Society for the Advancement of Skim milk has a total of 4 members and wishes to select a president and a vice president. The number of ways to choose a president is 4, as there are 4 candidates. Once the president has been chosen, there are 3 remaining candidates for the position of vice president. Therefore, the number of different ways they can choose a president and vice president is the product of these two numbers, which is 4 (for president) times 3 (for vice president).
To calculate this, you multiply the two figures: 4 × 3 = 12. So, there are 12 different combinations in which the president and vice president can be selected from the 4 members.