Question

71 athletes are running a race. A gold medal is to be given to the winner, a silver medal is to be given to the second-place finisher, and a bronze medal is to be given to the third-place finisher. Assume that there are no ties. In how many possible ways can the 3 medals be distributed?

Answer 1

Given that there is 71 athletes, and no one ends in a tie.
There’s also 3 medals that can only be given to 3 people max.

So the probability of each athlete of getting a medal is 3/71.

And with each medal being given, the number decreases by 1 for both the numerator and the denominator.

So with each medal given it goes from.

3/71, 2/70, 1/69

All we need is the denominator in this situation.

71(70)(69) And we multiply.

You’d get 342,930.

So the possible ways are 342,930.