Adele also must choose between leather or cloth seats for her vehicle. Leather seats come in three color choices; brown, black, and blue. Cloth seats come in two color choices; tan and gray. Using multiplication, Adele says she has (2)(3)(2), or a total of 12, choices for seat covers. Is she correct? Explain why or why not.

Answer 1

Adele is not correct in her calculations. Let's break down the options available to her:

1. Leather Seats: There are 3 color choices for leather seats: brown, black, and blue. So, there are 3 options here.

2. Cloth Seats: There are 2 color choices for cloth seats: tan and gray. So, there are 2 options here.

Adele seems to be treating the choices for leather and cloth seats as multiplicative when calculating total seat cover options. However, a person can either choose leather seats or cloth seats but not both. This means she should not multiply the number of choices for leather and cloth seats together because these options are mutually exclusive.

Thus, the correct way to account for her choices is to add the options:

• Options for leather seats: 3
• Options for cloth seats: 2

So, Adele's total choices for seat covers would be:

3 (leather options) + 2 (cloth options) = 5 total choices.

Therefore, the correct total number of choices for seat covers is 5, not 12.