In a local dog show, there are prizes for first, second, and third place. If there are 18 dogs competing, how many ways are there to award the prizes (assuming no dog can win two prizes)?

Answer 1

to do this, first we know that there are 18 ways for the first place (since there are 18 dogs), then 17 ways for the second place (18-1=17 since no dog can win two places), and 16 ways for the third. thus, we multiply these to get the number of ways:
18*17*16 = 4896 ways

hope this helps~ :)