A party store offers small balloons and large balloons. You can choose from pink, blue, green, and yellow balloons. You can choose from silver, gold, and white ribbons. Use the counting principle to find the number of different ways you can choose a balloon with a ribbon.

3 answers

There are 2 choices for the size of the balloon (small or large) and 3 choices for the type of ribbon (silver, gold, or white). Therefore, by the counting principle, there are 2 x 3 = 6 different ways you can choose a balloon with a ribbon.
There are also two different size balloons, small and large. How does this change the number of balloon options that you have found?.
Taking into account the two sizes of balloons, the total number of balloon options is now doubled. So there are 2 x 6 = 12 different ways you can choose a balloon with a ribbon.