For the dinner special at a restaurant, the customer must choose a salad, an entree, a side dish, and a dessert. Here are the items to choose from.

Question

Choice
Salad	Southwest, Garden, Caesar
Entree	Grilled chicken, Pot roast, T-bone steak, Lamb, Roast turkey
Side dish	Baked potato, Pinto beans, French fries, Rice, Corn
Dessert	Cheesecake, Brownies, Chocolate cake

How many dinner specials are possible?

Answer 1

Dear Mercy:

There are 3 salads, 5 entrees, 5 side dishes and 3 desserts.

Let's take salads and desserts in isolation to explain the concept. With three salads and three desserts you have these possibilities:

Southwest & Cheesecake

Southwest & Brownies

Southwest & Chocolate Cake

Garden & Cheesecake

Garden & Brownies

Garden & Chocolate Cake

Caesar & Cheesecake

Caesar & Brownies

Caesar & Chocolate Cake

As you can see we have 9 possibilities: 3 (salads) x 3 (desserts) = 9.

Thus, expanding it for all our types of foods,

3 (salads) x 5 (entrees) x 5 (side dishes) x 3 (desserts) = 225 different possibilities.

Hope this helps and do not hesitate to ask followup questions if you are still confused.

Sincerely,

Ron