In a regional spelling bee, the 8 finalists consist of 3 boys and 5 girls. Find the number of sample points in the sample space S for the number of possible orders at the conclusion of the contest fora. all 8 finialist.b. the first 3 positions.

since we have 8 possible positions, with 8 different candidates, then there are 8 possible ways of arranging the first position, 7 possible ways of arranging the Second position, 6 ways of arranging the 3rd position, 5 possible ways od arranging the 4th position, 4 possible ways of arranging the 5th position, 3 possible ways of arranging the 6th position, 2 possible ways of arranging the 7th position and just one way of arranging the 8th position since we have only one person left.

Hence, the Number of possible sample space for different 8 positions is by multiplying all the number of ways we have in our sample space which becomes:

8*7*6*5*4*3*2*1 = 40320.

b.) By the sample space we have, since we've been asked ti arrange for only the firat 3 positions, then we multiply just for the first 3ways of choosing the positions, this becomes:

8*7*6 = 336