You have to answer 3 essay questions for an exam. There are 5 essays to choose from. How many different groups of 3 essays could you possibly choose?

Answer 1

The simplest way to think of this problem is to take each choice separately. For the first choice allows you pick from 5 possibilities. The second choice allows you to pick from four essays. Likewise, the third choice is from three picks. Each of these selection is independent of the others. So you can choose

5 * 4* 3 = 60 different permutations of three essays chosen out of 5 possible.