Question

The alphabet of a fictionary tribe consists of three letters: A, O and M. Any combination of no more than four of these letters is considered a word. How many words are does this tribe's language have?

Answer 1

120 words

Explanation:

There are only three possible letters, assuming words can be 1, 2, 3 or 4 letters long:

The number of 1 letter words is 3

The number of 2 letter words is 3² = 9

The number of 3 letter words is 3³ = 27

The number of 4 letter words is 3⁴ = 81

The total number of possible words is:

`3+9+27+81 = 120\ words`

This tribe's language has 120 words.