The word "theory" is composed of the letters of the split alphabet. Three cards are taken out at random and stacked in a row one after another in order of appearance. How many possible compounds can be made up of the letters of this word?

There would be of them.

Step-by-step explanation:

There are distinct letters in the word "".

Hence, there would possible choices for the first letter that was selected.

Since the chosen card won't be placed back in the pool, there would be only possible choices for the second letter.

Likewise, there would be choices for the third letter.

. In other words, there are possible ways to draw three cards out of one after another.

Since the question states that the order of the cards matters, it won't be necessary to eliminate repetitions such as "" and "" from the number of combinations.