5,345 views
9 votes
9 votes
Jordan is planning to buy a vehicle. He has the following choices.

Type: sedan or SUV
Transmission: 5-speed or automatic
Color: red, blue, black, green, or silver
Top: sunroof or no sunroof

Jordan says that he has a total of 2 + 2 + 5 + 2, or 11, possible vehicle choices. What is Jordan’s error?

User Vishaal Shankar
by
3.0k points

1 Answer

11 votes
11 votes

Final answer:

Jordan's error in counting the possible vehicle choices is that he is double-counting the choices for Type and Transmission. The correct way to calculate the total number of choices is to multiply the number of options for each category. The total number of choices is 40.

Step-by-step explanation:

Jordan's error in counting the possible vehicle choices is that he is double-counting the choices for Type and Transmission. The correct way to calculate the total number of choices is to multiply the number of options for each category.

For Type, there are 2 options (sedan or SUV). For Transmission, there are 2 options (5-speed or automatic). For Color, there are 5 options (red, blue, black, green, or silver). For Top, there are 2 options (sunroof or no sunroof).

To find the total number of choices, multiply the number of options for each category: 2 choices for Type times 2 choices for Transmission times 5 choices for Color times 2 choices for Top, which equals 40 possible vehicle choices.

User Shadowhorst
by
3.1k points