Question

25 students in a class are going to run the mile in gym class. In how many ways can the students finish in first, second, and third place?

Answer 1

The number of ways in which 25 students can reach first, second, and third place is:

• 15511210043330985984000000

Or in scientific notation:

• 1,5511210043330985984X10 ^ 25

Explanation:

In order to know the distribution of a certain number of people or objects in a specific order, combinatorics is usually used by means of the factorial, which is regularly represented by the sign (!), With which having 25 students would write:

• 25! = 15511210043330985984000000

Since it may not be so well known to you, I will also explain how it works: using the factorial is the same as multiplying all the numbers, one by one, less than and equal to the number we have, therefore:

• 25! = 1 * 2 * 3 * 4 * 5 * 6 * 7 * 8 * 9 * 10 * 11 * 12 * 13 * 14 * 15 * 16 * 17 * 18 * 19 * 20 * 21 * 22 * 23 * 24 * 25 = 15511210043330985984000000