Technique 1: TABLE

1. In a birthday party, a guest has a choice of juice drink (orange, buko, or mango) and
dessert (leche flan, ube, or fruit salad). How many juice – dessert pairs are possible?

Place one choice in the upper part of the table while the other choice on the left most
column. To find the pairs just look for their intersection and combine them as a pair. For
easier listing / counting, a code for each choice can be used. In the table below, the first
letters of the choice are used to represent the choice.
Leche Flan (L) Ube (U) Fruit Salad (F)
Orange (O) O-L O-U O-F
Buko (B) B-L B-U B-F
Mango (M) M-L M-U M-F

The table above shows the list of pairing for each juice – dessert choices that the
guests may choose from. The list is written below.
1. Orange – Leche Flan
2. Orange – Ube
3. Orange – Fruit Salad
4. Buko – Leche Flan
5. Buko – Ube
6. Buko – Fruit Salad
7. Mango – Leche Flan
8. Mango – Ube
9. Mango – Fruit Salad

From the list, we can now count that there are 9 distinct pairs possible from three
juice drinks and three desserts.

2. If a coin is tossed and a die is rolled, how many outcomes are there? List down all
these outcomes using a table.

Die 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6

Coi
H H H H H H T T T T T T
n

From the table above, we can count that there are 2 outcomes for the coin – Head
(H) and Tail (T), and there are 6 outcomes in rolling a die - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Since the two
events are independent then their outcomes can be paired. Therefore, there are 12 possible
outcomes in tossing a coin and rolling a die.
Technique 2: TREE DIAGRAM

1. The school canteen offers lunch with the two kinds of rice preparations plain rice
and fried rice. Then there is a choice of pork, beef and chicken plus a salad of
beans, kamote tops and kangkong leaves. In how many ways can one eat lunch
if one of each kind is ordered?

Tree Diagram

Rice Viand Salad

Beans 1
Pork Kamote Tops 2
Kangkong leaves 3

Beans 4
Plain Rice Beef Kamote Tops 5
Kangkong Leaves 6

Beans 7
Chicken Kamote Tops 8
Kangkong leaves 9

Beans 10
Pork kamote tops 11
Kangkong leaves 12

Beans 13
Fried Rice Beef kamote tops 14
Kangkong leaves 15

Beans 16
Chicken kamote tops 17
Kangkong leaves 18

As shown in the diagram above, there are 18 possible lunch combinations.

2. A foreigner wants to visit the two cities in Ilocos Sur and intend to do it by
walking, riding a public transportation or by his motorcycle. How many ways can
the foreigner reach the two cities?

Cities Mode of Transportation

Walking
Candon City Public Transportation
Motorcycle

Walking
Vigan City Public Transportation
Motorcycle
As shown in the diagram, there are 6 possible choices to reach the destination
Technique 3: SYSTEMATIC LISTING
1. How many three – digit even numbers can be formed using the digits 0, 1, 2, 3?

There are four digits: 0, 1, 2, 3

There are only three digits to choose from for the first digit of the even number: 1, 2, 3
There are four digits to choose from for the second digit of the even number: 0, 1, 2, 3
There are only two digits to choose from for the third digit of an even number: 0, 2

The even numbers are: 100, 102, 110, 112, 120, 122, 130, 132, 200, 202, 210, 212, 220,
222, 230, 232, 300, 302, 310, 312, 320, 322, 330, 332.

Therefore, there are 24 three – digit even numbers.

2. If a coin is tossed and a die is rolled, how many possible outcomes are there?

There are two possible outcomes for the coin: Head (H) , Tail (T)
There are possible outcomes for the die: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Pairing each outcome of the coin to each outcome of the die gives us the list of all
possible outcomes.

E = {(H,1), (H,2), (H,3), (H,4), (H,5), (H,6), (T,1), (T,2), (T,3), (T,4), (T,5), (T,6)}

Counting the list, there are 12 possible outcomes.

Review: Fundamental Principle of Counting

If an event has m possible outcomes or can be done in m ways, and when it has
been done, a second event has n possible outcomes or can be done inn ways,
and when it has been done, a third event has p possible outcomes or can be done
in p ways, and so forth then, the total number of outcomes is the product of m , n
and p . That is
( m ) ( n) ( p ) …

Technique 4: FUNDAMENTAL COUNTING PRINCIPLE

1. Find the number of possible outcomes in rolling a dice twice.
There are two events, the first roll and the second roll.
First roll x second roll = possible outcomes
In the first roll there are 6 outcomes and so with the second roll therefore,
( 6 )( 6 )=36

2. Election periods are often exciting in the Philippines. Suppose that in the next senatorial
election a candidate may be: (1) a male or a female Filipino, (2) from Luzon, Visayas, or
 Mindanao, and (3) affiliated with Parties A, B, C, D or just an independent candidate.
How many different kinds of candidates are possible using these three sets of criteria?

Using the FCP, we have:

Sex Area Affiliation Possibilities

2 x 3 x 5 = 30 distinct kinds
choices choices choices of candidates

3. Using the digits 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, how many:

a. three – digit numbers can be formed without repetition of digits?
b. three – digit numbers can be formed with repetition?
c. three – digit numbers can be formed without repetition?

a. There are nine digits to choose from in filling out the three boxes.

Each representing the “event” digits of a number.

7 8 9

9 digits to choose from in filling up the unit’s

place

1 digit is used, which leaves only 8 digits to

choose from in filling up the ten’s place

2 digits are used, which leaves only 7 digits

to
choose from in filling up the hundred’s place

Therefore, the total number of 3 – digit numbers can be formed is

( 7 )( 8 )( 9 )=504

b. Since repetition will be allowed, there will be 9 digits to choose from in each
place.

9 9 9
Therefore, the total number of 3 – digit numbers can be formed is ( 9 )( 9 )( 9 )=729
9
c. Of the digits, there are only four even digits

7 8 4
 4 ways to fill up the unit’s place

8 ways to fill up the ten’s place

7 ways left to fill up the hundred’s place

Therefore, the total number of 3-digit even numbers that can be formed is
( 7 )( 8 )( 4 )=224 .

Word Problem:
During the weekends, you and your friends plan to travel out of town. You
want to wear a plain t – shirt (red, blue, black, white) and pants (long and
 short) for the travel. Apply the different techniques to determine the number of
possible choices of outfit.

a. Table

T-
Red Red Blue Blue Black Black Pink Pink
shirt

Pants Long Short Long Short Long Short Long Short

As shown above, we can easily count that there are 8 possible choices that
you can choose from.

To complete your outfit for the trip, you want to use a footwear (shoes,
slippers, sandals). Build a tree diagram of all the possible combinations of t – shirt,
pants, and footwear. List the outcomes systematically and check the number of
choices using the fundamental counting principle.

(Note: You may use codes for the words to ease the building of tree diagram. In this
case we will use the following codes.

Shirts – R (red), B1 (Blue), B2 (Black), P (Pink)

Foot wears – S1 (Shoes), S2 (Slippers), S3 (sandals)

Pants – Sh (Short), L (Long)

b. Tree Diagram
 Shirt Pants Footwear

S1

L S2

S3

S1

Sh S2

S3

S1

L S2

S3

B1

S1

Sh S2

S3

S1

L S2

S3

B2

S1

Sh S2

S3

S1

L S2

S3

S1

Sh S2

S3

The diagram shows that there are 24 possible choices.

c. Systematic Listing
We can easily list all possible outcomes if the table or tree diagram is given.

Note: Use the order {(shirt, pants, footwear)}.

E = {(R, L, S1), (R, L, S2), (R, L, S3), (R, Sh, S1), (R, Sh, S2), (R, Sh, S3), (B1, L,
S1), (B1, L, S2), (B1, L, S3), (B1, Sh, S1), (B1, Sh, S2), (B1, Sh, S3), (B2, L, S1),
(B2, L, S2), (B2, L, S3), (B2, Sh, S1), (B2, Sh, S2), (B2, Sh, S3), (P, L, S1), (P, L,
S2), (P, L, S3), (P, Sh, S1), (P, Sh, S2), (P, Sh, S3)}

n(E) = 24 outcomes

d. Fundamental Counting Principle

In the given problem, there are 4, 2, and 3 choices for t – shirt, pants and footwear
respectively. So,

Number of possible outcomes = a x b x c where,

a = number of choices for T – shirt

b = number of choices for pants

c = number of choices for footwear

Number of possible outcomes = 4 x 2 x 3

= 24 outcomes

Suppose you want to bring a bag for the trip and you have a sling bag, hand bag and
pack bag in your collection, how many outcomes are possible?

Number of possible outcomes = 4 x 2 x 3 x 3

= 72 outcomes.