Question

Hi, I would like help with the following maths problem:
A food stall sells 3 types of set lunch. Patty buys a set lunch from the stall each day. How many different ways can she choose her set lunch in a 5-day week?
Can someone provide the solution with explanations?

Answer 1

3^5= 243

Answer 2

what does "^" mean?

Answer 3

its the exponent - 3^5 means 3*3*3*3*3 : 3 multiplied by itself 5 times.
and can be spoken as 'three to the power five'

Answer 4

why 3^5?

Answer 5

suppose it was two days not five - on day 1 she has a choice of 3 meals so there are three possible choices For each of thes choices she can have any one of three on second day - so that makes 3 * 3 = 9 different sets of meals
so she can have any one of following:
11
12
13
21
22
23
31
32
33
For each subsequent day she has 3 choices again
so 3 3^3, 4 days 3^4 and so on

Answer 6

does that help?

Answer 7

thanks it helped :)