Nine firms, F1, F2, , F9, each offer bids on three separate contracts, C1, C2, and C3. Any one firm will be awarded at most one contract. The contracts are quite different, so an assignment of C1 to F1, say, is to be distinguished from an assignment of C2 to F1. (a) How many sample points are there altogether in this experiment involving assignment of contracts to the firms?
(b) Under the assumption of equally likely sample points, find the probability that F3 is awarded under a contract.