Possible Outcomes and Combinations

You can choose White or Chocolate Milk AND Chocolate Chip, Peanut Butter, or Snickerdoodle cookies To find how many possible combinations there are, you take the number of possibilities in your first choice and multiply it by the number of possibilities in your second choice.

You can choose White or Chocolate Milk AND Chocolate Chip, Peanut Butter, or Snickerdoodle cookies So…in this example, you have 2 choices of milk and 3 choices of cookies, so you have 2 x 3 or 6 possible combinations of one milk and one cookie.

You can choose White or Chocolate Milk AND Chocolate Chip, Peanut Butter, or Snickerdoodle cookies Next, you will want to create a list of the possible combinations. To do this, it is VERY important to stay organized. Start with white milk and list the combinations that you can have with white milk. Then do the same with chocolate milk.

You can choose White or Chocolate Milk AND Chocolate Chip, Peanut Butter, or Snickerdoodle cookies White MilkChocolate Milk

So, you could choose White milk and Chocolate Chip White milk and peanut butter White milk and snickerdoodle Chocolate milk and chocolate chip Chocolate milk and peanut butter Chocolate milk and snickerdoodle You can choose White or Chocolate Milk AND Chocolate Chip, Peanut Butter, or Snickerdoodle cookies

Let’s try another one The Indians have 4 jerseys…white, cream, blue, and gray The Indians have 2 pant colors…white and gray. How many possible combinations do the Indians have for each game? 4 jerseys x 2 pants = 8 combinations

Blue JerseyCream JerseyGray JerseyWhite Jersey White Pants Gray Pants

So, the list of possible uniform combinations would be… Blue jersey, white pants Blue jersey, gray pants Cream jersey, white pants Cream jersey, gray pants Gray jersey, white pants Gray jersey, gray pants White jersey, white pants White jersey, gray pants

Now try one on your own You are going to make a sandwich. You can choose one meat (turkey, bologna, or ham) and one cheese (American, swiss, or cheddar). How many possible combinations are there? List the possible sandwich combinations that you could make.

You can choose one meat (turkey, bologna, or ham) and one cheese (American, swiss, or cheddar). There are 3 meats to choose from and 3 cheeses to choose from…so 3 x 3 = 9 possible combinations The list of possible outcomes is listed below… Turkey & American Turkey & swiss Turkey & cheddar Bologna & American Bologna & swiss Bologna & cheddar Ham & American Ham & swiss Ham & cheddar

Try another one… You are making an ice cream sundae. You can choose chocolate or vanilla ice cream. You can choose hot fudge, peanut butter, butterscotch, or whipped cream on top. How many possible combinations are there of one ice cream and one topping? List the possible combinations.

Ice Cream Choices Chocolate or Vanilla Topping Choices Hot Fudge, Peanut Butter, Butterscotch, or Whipped Cream There are 2 ice cream choices and 4 topping choices, so there are 2 x 4 or 8 possible combinations. The list of possible combinations is… Chocolate with Hot FudgeVanilla with Hot Fudge Chocolate with Peanut ButterVanilla with Peanut Butter Chocolate with ButterscotchVanilla with Butterscotch Chocolate with Whipped CreamVanilla with Whipped Cream

The same strategy can be used when you are finding combinations with 3 options Suppose… You have 3 shirts (a green, a yellow, and a blue). You have 2 pairs of pants (blue or tan) You have 3 pairs of socks (black, white, and tan) How many possible combinations are there? List the possible combinations (organization is VERY important!!!).

You have 3 shirts, 2 pants, and 3 socks…so you take 3 x 2 x 3 = 18 outfits. Green Shirt Yellow ShirtBlue Shirt Blue Pants Blue Pants Blue Pants Tan Pants Tan Pants Tan Pants Black socksTan socksWhite socksBlack socks White socks Tan socks

So…your list would be… ShirtPantsSocks 1.GreenBlueBlack 2.GreenBlueWhite 3.GreenBlueTan 4.GreenTanBlack 5.GreenTanWhite 6.GreenTan 7.YellowBlueBlack 8.YellowBlueWhite 9.YellowBlueTan 10.YellowTanBlack 11.YellowTanWhite 12.YellowTan 13.BlueBlueBlack 14.BlueBlueWhite 15.BlueBlueTan 16.BlueTanBlack 17.BlueTanWhite 18.BlueTan