Question 426906
There are 15 students, and any of them could receive first place. Therefore, there are 15 possibilities for first place.
A student cannot receive first and second place, so the student who won first place cannot also win second place. Therefore, there are only 14 students who could win second place.
Since  students have received first and second place, there are only 13 students eligible for 3rd place.
We can multiply these three possibilities to find the number of possible rankings of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place.
{{{15*14*13=2730}}}
There are are 2730 possible ways for the 15 students to be ranked 1st 2nd and 3rd.