Answer:
i) A total of 40320 different arrangements
ii) For the initial 3 spots, there are 336 different combinations.
Step-by-step explanation:
Given: The total finalists = 8
The count of boys = 3
The count of girls = 5
To determine the number of sample point in the sample space S for possible arrangements, we calculate the factorial of 8!
The number of possible arrangements equals 8!
= 1 x 2 x 3 x 4 x 5 x 6 x 7 x 8
= 40320
ii) Among the 8 finalists, we must select the first 3 spots. The sequence matters, hence we utilize permutation.
nPr =
Here n = 8 and r = 3
Substituting n = 8 and r = 3 into the formula, we arrive at
8P3 = 
= 
= 6.7.8
= 336
Thus, there are 336 different arrangements for the first 3 spots.