document.write( "Question 995031: Hello,\r
\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "Let's say I have three letters; A, B and C. I need to know the formula how to count the number of all possible combinations using A, B and C, the letters can be repeated and the order of the letters is important (e.g. ABC and BCA are not the same).\r
\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "All the way here I'm pretty confident I can solve this alone. \"3%5E3\" right?\r
\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "Moving on, what if the number of digits can be 1, 2 or 3? (e.g. A, B, C, AA, AB, ..., AAA, AAB, ABC, ... )
\n" ); document.write( "Is there a way to count that any faster way than \"3%5E3+%2B+3%5E2+%2B+3%5E1\" ?
\n" ); document.write( "It is very time consuming if there can be any more than three digits in the answer and I have to manually solve it as shown above.\r
\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "Thank you for your time!
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Algebra.Com's Answer #613917 by rothauserc(4718)\"\" \"About 
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
For A, B, C, the maximum number of combinations is
\n" ); document.write( "2*3^0 + 2*3^1 + 2*3^2 + 1 or
\n" ); document.write( "2[(3^0)+(3^1)+(3^2)]+1 =
\n" ); document.write( "2[1+3+9]+1 = 27\r
\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "This is not hard to prove if you think of what you have as a base-3 number system counting from the lowest three digit combo to the highest three digit combo.\r
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