Question

Melanie is designing a new board game, and is trying to figure out all the possible

outcomes. How many different possible outcomes are there if she spins a spinner
with three equal-sized sections labeled Walk, Run, Stop and spins a spinner with four
equal-sized sections labeled Red, Green, Blue, Orange?

Answer 1

12 possible outcomes

Explanation:

If she's spinning them at the same time, this is how you do it:

There are 3 possible outcomes on the first spinner- Walk, Run, and Stop.

There are 4 outcomes on the second spinner- Red, Green, Blue, and Orange.

Since they're being spun at the same time, we need to consider all of the possible combinations, for example:

Walk & Red.

Walk & Green.

Walk & Blue.

Walk & Orange.

And so on. Each outcome on the first gets multiplied by 4, since there are 4 sections on the 2nd spinner. Same thing if you did it and switched- the 4 sections on the second spinner would each have 3 different outcomes.

In conclusion, you'd just multiply 3×4, and there you go. Or, you can think of it as 4+4+4, if that's a little easier to understand.