Question

There are 17 mathematics majors and 325 computer science majors in a college. Which rule must be used to find out the number of ways that two representatives can be picked so that one is a mathematics major and the other is a computer science major?

Answer 1

Product Rule

Explanation:

According to the product rule, the number of possibilities of two independent events happening in sequence, is given by the product of both number of possibilities.

In this case, since there are 17 mathematics majors and 325 computer science majors and they do not overlap, the total number of ways to pick two representatives so that one is of each major is:

n = 17 x 325 = 5,525.