Question

Luisa is planning a bridal shower for her best friend. At the party, she wants to serve 3 beverages, 3 appetizers, and 3 desserts, but she does not have time to cook. She can choose from 15 bottled drinks, 10 frozen appetizers, and 13 prepared desserts at the supermarket. How many different ways can Luisa pick the food and drinks to serve at the bridal shower

Answer 1

Answer:

Luisa can pick the food and drinks to serve at the bridal shower in 15,615,600 different ways.

Step-by-step explanation:

Fundamental counting principle:

States that if there are p ways to do a thing, and q ways to do another thing, and these two things are independent, there are p*q ways to do both things.

Also

The order in which the food and drinks are chosen is not important, which means that the combinations formula is used to solve this question.

Combinations formula:

$C_{n,x}$ is the number of different combinations of x objects from a set of n elements, given by the following formula.

$C_{n,x} = \frac{n!}{x!(n-x)!}$

Beverages:

3 from a set of 15. So

$B = C_{15,3} = \frac{15!}{3!12!} = 455$

Appetizers:

3 from a set of 10. So

$A = C_{10,3} = \frac{10!}{3!7!} = 120$

Desserts:

3 from a set of 13. So

$D = C_{13,3} = \frac{13!}{3!10!} = 286$

How many different ways can Luisa pick the food and drinks to serve at the bridal shower?

By the fundamental counting principle, as beverages, appetizers and desserts are independent:

$T = B*A*D = 455*120*286 = 15,615,600$

Luisa can pick the food and drinks to serve at the bridal shower in 15,615,600 different ways.