A college offers 2 introductory courses in history, 1 in Science, 2 in Math, 2 in Philosophy, and 4 in English. If a freshman takes one course in each area during her 1st semester, how many course selections are possible?
Asked
Active
Viewed 94 times
-1
-
Well, I've tried to break it down the old fashioned way by counting, but it's been too long since I"e done problems like this. I can't remember any formulas for this particular type of problem. – SYO Jan 29 '14 at 03:49
-
If you have 3 shirts and 2 pairs of pants, how many outfits can you make? – D Wiggles Jan 29 '14 at 03:56
-
Is the answer 6? – SYO Jan 29 '14 at 04:28
-
$6$ is correct for this one, coming from $3 \times 2$ – Ross Millikan Jan 29 '14 at 04:59
1 Answers
0
Hint: It is few enough to count by hand, which would be good to understand what is going on. Let the courses be S, M1, M2, P1, P2, E1, E2, E3, E4 and you choose one of each letter. For a start, ignore S and M: how many choices are there for P and E? For each P, you can choose how many E's?
Ross Millikan
- 374,822
-
-
That is correct. Now for each combination of E and P, you have two choices for M. The general principle is that independent choices multiply. – Ross Millikan Jan 29 '14 at 04:47
-
-
No, for each of the eight choices of P,E you have two choices of M, so $8 \times 2$ choices for P,E,M – Ross Millikan Jan 29 '14 at 04:58
-
-