Product Rule for Counting – Demonstration

This resource provides animated demonstrations of the mathematical method.

Check animations and delete slides not needed for your class.
 At the ice cream kiosk you can choose…
one flavour of ice cream & one topping.
Hmmmm…
Flavours Toppings
Vanilla Flake
Chocolate Sprinkles
Banana Nuts
Marshmallows

How many different ice creams could Sam order?

Use letters to make it easier to list.

VF CF BF
VS CS BS
VN CN BN
VM CM BM

What is the connection between the number of options & the total choices?
Flavours Toppings
Vanilla Flake We can map each choice.
Chocolate Sprinkles
Banana Nuts
Marshmallows Start

V C B

F S N M F S N M F S N M
VF VS VN VM CF CS CN CM BF BS BN BM
In total we have 12 choices.
3 first choices × 4 second choices.
 At the ice cream kiosk you can choose…
one flavour & one topping.

Flavours Toppings
Vanilla Flake
Chocolate Sprinkles
Banana Marshmallows

How many different ice cream possibilities are there?

Flavours Toppings Sauce We can map the
Vanilla Flake Toffee possibilities.
Chocolate Sprinkles Raspberry What would happen to the
Banana Marshmallows Lemon total amount of possibilities if
we can choose a sauce as well?
Start

V C B

F S M F S M F S M

T R L T R L T R L T R L T R L T R L T R L T R L T R L

To find the total possibilities we can multiply each independent option.

3 × 3 × 3 = 27 total possibilities
 Daniel has a 2-digit passcode on his phone.

There are 100 possibilities for the passcode. Why?

1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9
0

There are 99 possible 2-digit numbers, but also 00.

 Michael has a 3-digit passcode on his phone.

How many different possibilities are there for the passcode?

1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9
1st Digit 2nd Digit 3rd Digit 0
10 options 10 options 10 options

10 × 10 × 10 = 1,000 total possibilities

This is the product rule for counting:

To calculate the total ways many things can be chosen,
we multiply the ways each thing can be chosen.
 A safe has a keypad & a 4-character code.

1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 0
A B C
How many different codes are there?

1st Character 2nd Character 3rd Character 4th Character

13 options 13 options 13 options 13 options

13 × 13 × 13 × 13 = 28,561 total possibilities

 A safe has a keypad & a 4-character code.

1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 0
A B C
The code starts with a letter.
How many different codes are there?

1st Character 2nd Character 3rd Character 4th Character

3 options 13 options 13 options 13 options

3 × 13 × 13 × 13 = 6,591 total possibilities

 A safe has a keypad & a 5-character code.

e.g.
1 2 3 4 5 BB453
6 7 8 9 0
A B C
The code starts with 2 letters, then 3 digits.
How many different codes are there?

1st Character 2nd Character 3rd Character 4th Character 5th Character
3 options 3 options 10 options 10 options 10 options

3 × 3 × 10 × 10 × 10 = 9,000 total possibilities

 A safe has a keypad & a 4-character code.

e.g.
1 2 3 4 5 B6B3
6 7 8 9 0
A6B3
A B C
The code has no repeated characters.
How many different codes are there?

1st Character 2nd Character 3rd Character 4th Character

13 options 12 options 11 options 10 options

13 × 12 × 11 × 10 = 17,160 total possibilities

 A safe has a keypad & a 4-character code.

e.g.
1 2 3 4 5 26B6
6 7 8 9 0
26B3
A B C
The code starts with a number & has no repeated characters.
How many different codes are there?

1st Character 2nd Character 3rd Character 4th Character

10 options 12 options 11 options 10 options

10 × 12 × 11 × 10 = 13,200 total possibilities

 Calculate the total possible passcodes if….

a) It is a 3-digit number 1,000 1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 0
b) It is a 5-digit number 100,000

e) It is an even 5-digit number

c) It is a 4-digit number that starts with a 9 1,000 50,000
f) It is a 6-digit number that
d) It is an odd 3-digit number 500 starts & finishes 160,000
with a prime number.

Robots from a factory are given an individual code (using the whole alphabet & 0-9).
Each code has no repeated characters.
How many robots could be produced according to each rule?

g) Letter-Letter-Letter (e.g. ABX) h) Digit-Letter-Letter (e.g. 9-BX)

15,600 6,500

i) Digit-Digit-Letter-Letter (e.g. 62-TG) j) 3 Letters then 3 Digits (e.g. ATQ-479)

58,500 11,232,000
 A B C
How many different ways can you arrange these 3 cards?

1st Card 2nd Card 3rd Card

3 options 2 options 1 option

3×2×1= 6 total possibilities

ABC BAC CAB
This is 3 factorial. ACB BCA CBA
3!
 A B C D E F
How many different ways can you arrange these 6 cards?

1st Card 2nd Card 3rd Card 4th Card 5th Card 6th Card
6 options 5 options 4 options 3 options 2 options 1 option

6 × 5 × 4 × 3 × 2 × 1 = 720 total possibilities

This is 6 factorial.
6!
 A B C D E F
How many different ways can you arrange these 6 cards?

6 × 5 × 4 × 3 × 2 × 1 = 720 total possibilities

This is 6 factorial.
6!
We have lots of combinations of cards, this is because order matters.

ADEFCB is counted as well as BCEFDA.

Sometimes when we are counting order doesn’t matter,

we only care about what is picked, not how.

If we don’t care about order things happen in, the possibilities must decrease.
 A B C D
Mark picks 2 cards at random.
How many different combinations of cards could he pick?

4 × 3 = 12 different ways to pick

But! Order doesn’t matter, we only care about which cards he gets:
AB are the same cards as BA.
1ST Choice
A B C D
2 cards can be arranged in 2! ways.
A AB AC AD
2 ndChoice

B BA BC BD total ways to pick 12 12

= = =6
C CA CB CD duplicate arrangements 2! 2
D DA DB DC
There are only 6 unique combinations he could get.
 A B C D E F
If you pick 3 cards,
how many different combinations could you get?

Different ways to pick 3 from 6 = 6 × 5 × 4 = 120

But, these possibilities include the same 3 cards selected:

it counts DCF, DFC, CFD etc…

We need to eliminate duplicates: how many ways can 3 cards be arranged?

3! Each set of 3 cards has 6 duplicate arrangements.

total ways to pick 120

= = 20 unique combinations of cards
duplicate arrangements 3×2×1
Anna Beth Charlie Dawn Elle Fran Grace

We want to pick a 5 person running team.

How many possible combinations of 5 students are there?

Different ways to pick 5 students from 7 = 7 × 6 × 5 × 4 × 3 = 2,520

But! We don’t care about order: ACDEG are the same 5 runners as DGCAE
We need to divide by the duplicates.

different ways to pick 2520

= = 21 unique combinations of players
duplicate arrangements 5!
 From 11 students, Mr Hedges wants to pick 5 for the athletics squad.

How many possible combinations of 5 students are there?

Different ways to pick 5 students from 11 = 11 × 10 × 9 × 8 × 7 = 55,440

How many duplicates are there in each set of 5?

different ways to pick 55440

= = 462 unique combinations of students
duplicate arrangements 5!
 A pizza place has 6 toppings available.
You pick 4 different toppings.

How many unique pizzas are available?

Total ways to pick 4 from 6 = 6 × 5 × 4 × 3 = 360

Duplicate ways to arrange 4 items = 4! = 4×3×2×1 = 24

total ways to pick 360

= = 15 unique combinations of toppings
duplicate arrangements 4!
 We need to divide by duplicates when we don’t care what order things are chosen in.
For each question, decide the total ways to pick & then
whether you need to remove duplicate choices or not.

1) Mark is choosing 4-digits for his PIN for his phone. 10 × 9 × 8 × 7 = 5,040
He doesn’t want repeated digits. How many total combinations can he choose from?

2) An ice cream shop has 7 flavours. Mary wants to pick 2 different flavours to try.
How many 2-flavour combinations could she pick? 7×6
= 21
2×1
3) Five students are in a race.
How many ways can 1st, 2nd & 3rd place prizes be awarded? 5 × 4 × 3 = 60

4) Tim & Jamie go to the ice cream shop with 7 flavours available.
They each choose 1 flavour for themselves. 7 × 6 = 42
How many combinations of different flavours could they pick?

8×7×6
5) A sandwich shop offers 8 ingredients & you choose 3 for your sandwich. = 56
How many different sandwiches are available in total? 3×2×1
 Questions?
Comments?
Suggestions?

…or have you found a mistake!?

Any feedback would be appreciated .

Please feel free to email:

tom@goteachmaths.co.uk