A class elects two officers, a president and a secretary/ treasurer, from its 12 members. How many different ways can these two offices be filled from the members of the class?
To find the number of different ways these two offices can be filled from the members of the class, we can use the concept of permutations.
The president can be chosen from any of the 12 members of the class. After the president is chosen, the secretary/treasurer can be chosen from the remaining 11 members.
Therefore, the number of ways to choose the president is 12, and for each of these 12 ways, there are 11 possible choices for the secretary/treasurer. Thus, the total number of different ways to fill the two offices is:
12 * 11 = 132
So, there are 132 different ways to fill the president and secretary/treasurer positions from the 12 members of the class.