A gymnastics competition has 9 gymnasts. How many different top-4 rankings are possible?
Question
A gymnastics competition has 9 gymnasts. How many different top-4 rankings are possible?
Solution
To solve this problem, we use the concept of permutations in combinatorics. A permutation is an arrangement of objects in a specific order. The number of permutations of n objects taken r at a time is given by the formula:
P(n, r) = n! / (n-r)!
where "!" denotes factorial, which is the product of all positive integers up to that number.
In this case, we have 9 gymnasts (n=9) and we want to find out the number of ways we can rank the top 4 (r=4).
So, we plug these values into our formula:
P(9, 4) = 9! / (9-4)!
= 9! / 5!
= (987654321) / (54321)
= 987*6
= 3024
So, there are 3024 different top-4 rankings possible in this gymnastics competition.
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