Question

Suppose you have 9 tubes of paint. How many distinct color groupings can you make with your paint?

Answer 1

9514 1404 393

Answer:

  511

Step-by-step explanation:

Each tube can be included in the mix, or not. There are 2^9 = 512 possible subsets of a set of 9 objects, including the complete set and the empty set. The empty set will not make a color, so there are ...

  2^9 - 1 = 511 distinct color groupings that can be made

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The assumption in the above answer is that no tube color can be made by any combination of other tube colors.* We also assume that the choice of tubes is what makes a "color grouping", and that the colors within that grouping made by using different ratios of paint quantities are not counted separately.