Final answer:
The total number of numbers that can be formed using the digits 1, 2, and 3 and are less than 3 * 10^8 is 432
Step-by-step explanation:
The total number of numbers that are less than 3 * 10^8 and can be formed using the digits 1, 2, and 3 can be found by counting the number of possibilities for each digit.
Since the numbers must be less than 3 * 10^8, we know that the first digit can only be 1 or 2, and the remaining digits can be any of the three options: 1, 2, or 3.
Therefore, we have 2 choices for the first digit and 3 choices for each of the remaining 7 digits (total of 8 digits). Hence, the total number of numbers that can be formed is 2 * 3^7 = 432.