69 athletes are running a race. A gold medal is to be given to the winner, a silver medal is to be given to the second-place finisher, and a bronze medal is to be given to the third-place finisher.
Assume that there are no ties. In how many possible ways can the 3 medals be distributed?

The order of finishing is important here, therefore you use permutations rather than combinations.  Athlete A winning a gold medal, athlete B silver, and athlete C bronze is not the same as athlete A bronze, athlete B silver and athlete C gold for instance

69P3 = 69! / (69 -3!)

Step-by-step explanation:

the first one, all those points on the line just make a strait line.