An ice cream stand offers customers 2 choices of cones - sugar or waffle. It also has 5 flavours of ice cream and you can choose 1 - chocolate, vanilla, berry, mango, or oreo. Customers can choose from 2 toppings - fudge or peanut butter. Determine the number of choices possible for an ice cream cone by using sample space .

Start by putting the information into a graphic organizer.

 

For counting problems involving many choices, use a chart to organize the information.

 

Construct a sample space by grouping each of the choices as they appear in the chart.

Use the first letter of each choice to identify the grouping.

 

S = { SCF , }

 

SCF is the first grouping from the chart. It will be the first possible outcome for choosing cone, ice cream and topping.

 

S = {SCF, SCP, SVF, SVP, SBF, SBP, SMF, SMP, SOF, SOP, WCF, WCP, WVF, WVP, WBF, WBP, WMF, WMP, WOF, WOP}

 

Use the roster method introduced in Unit 1 to list S , the set of all possible outcomes in the sample space for choosing cone, ice cream, and topping.

 

20 possibilities

 

Count the number of possibilities in the sample space.

 

Based on the sample space, customers have 20 total possibilities to choose from when selecting a cone, ice cream, and topping.