Question: There are 8 shirts, 4 pair pants, and 2 pairs of shoes. How many outfits can you make?

Intuition says break it into parts: 4 pair pants and 2 pairs shoes would make 4 x 2 = 8 outfits. Now bring in the 8 shirts --> giving 8 x 8 = 64 outfits.

I don't know if the above answer is correct. Would someone help me formulate this as combinations and permutations.

-thanks-

as you determined for yourself, this problem has nothing to do with combinations/permutations. you need to use the fundamental counting principle, which is what you did.

http://www.virtualnerd.com/algebra-2/probability-statistics/permutations-combinations/counting-outcomes/fundamental-counting-principle-definition

This post was edited by carteblanche on Feb 24 2014 10:58pm

you did this the correct way.
Technically, you CAN solve this using a product of combinations, but your way is much simpler.
You could say:
C(8,1) x C(4,1) x C(2,1) = 8 x 4 x 2 = 64

Thanks Guys!

This post was edited by joeinfhills on Feb 24 2014 11:11pm