Suppose there are 13 freshman, 15 sophomores, 9 juniors, and 12 seniors running for the offices of president, vice president, and secretary.

Question

Suppose there are 13 freshman, 15 sophomores, 9 juniors, and 12 seniors running for the offices of president, vice president, and secretary. If no person can hold more than one office, in how many different ways could these people be elected to these positions?

Answer 1

Since order makes a difference, this is a permutaton

₄₉P₄ = ?

Answer 2

There are 49 total students and 3 different offices. The order matters because each office is unique. Therefore, you need to find 49 permute 3.