The Product Rule 71

any predecessors E1 , E2 , . . . , Ei−1 . Then E1 and E2 and . . . and Ek can occur simultaneously in n1 n2 · · · nk ways.

439 Example In a group of 8 men and 9 women we can pick one man and one woman in 8 · 9 = 72 ways. Notice that we are
choosing two persons.

440 Example A red die and a blue die are tossed. In how many ways can they land?

Solution: If we view the outcomes as an ordered pair (r, b) then by the multiplication principle we have the 6 · 6 = 36 possible
outcomes
(1, 1) (1, 2) (1, 3) (1, 4) (1, 5) (1, 6)

(2, 1) (2, 2) (2, 3) (2, 4) (2, 5) (2, 6)

(3, 1) (3, 2) (3, 3) (3, 4) (3, 5) (3, 6)

(4, 1) (4, 2) (4, 3) (4, 4) (4, 5) (4, 6)

(5, 1) (5, 2) (5, 3) (5, 4) (5, 5) (5, 6)

(6, 1) (6, 2) (6, 3) (6, 4) (6, 5) (6, 6)

The red die can land in any of 6 ways,

6
and also, the blue die may land in any of 6 ways

6 6 .

441 Example A multiple-choice test consists of 20 questions, each one with 4 choices. There are 4 ways of answering the first
question, 4 ways of answering the second question, etc., hence there are 420 = 1099511627776 ways of answering the exam.

442 Example There are 9 · 10 · 10 = 900 positive 3-digit integers:

100, 101, 102, . . ., 998, 999.

For, the leftmost integer cannot be 0 and so there are only 9 choices {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9} for it,

9 .

There are 10 choices for the second digit

9 10 ,

and also 10 choices for the last digit

9 10 10 .

443 Example There are 9 · 10 · 5 = 450 even positive 3-digit integers:

100, 102, 104, . . ., 996, 998.

For, the leftmost integer cannot be 0 and so there are only 9 choices {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9} for it,

9 .