There are 30 runners in a marthon. How many ways can runners place first,second, and third?

Question

There are 30 runners in a marthon. How many ways can runners place first,second, and third?

Answer 1

Only one, assuming tiebreakers are used. Reasoning: one marathon produces 1 winner, 1 2nd, 1 3rd.

Answer 2

24360 ways

Answer 3

30 x 29 x 28 = 24,360 different ways

Explanation:  There are 30 different possible first-place gold medalists, leaving 29 remaining runners to place in order.  There are 29 different possible second-place silver medalists for any given gold medalist, leaving 28 remaining runners to place in order.  Any of these 28 could be the third-place bronze medalist.

Answer 4

24360 ways it can happen.

(1)..(1)..(1)....(1)

--  x --  x  --  = -------

30..29..28...24360.

Ignore the periods, it's just hard to post spaces in between numbers.

Answer 5

24,360 different ways

Answer 6

30 * 29 * 28

Answer 7

There are 24,360 combinations of runners finishing 1st, 2nd and 3rd.  Since there are 30 runners, any of them could finish first.  The runner who wins cannot finish second, so there 29 runners who could finish second.  This means there are 870 (30 x 29) combinations for first and second.  Adding third to the equation requires multiplication by 28, since there are only 28 runners left competing for 3rd.  30 x 29 x 28 = 24,360