how many different ways can 28 runners place in an Olympic qualifying marathon

28!

$${\mathtt{28}}{!} = {\mathtt{304\,888\,344\,611\,713\,860\,501\,504\,000\,000}}$$

 

Anon, your answer is not correct :(

There are 28 different runners that can place first (gold), 27 different runners that can place second (silver) and 26 different runners that can place third (bronze).

The proper procedure is to multiply these numbers:  28 x 27 x 26 ...

that's what I thought but I did not understand how calculate the value of the answer which is

5.473472e+30

Help :-)