Choosing any one of four
entrées along with any one of three different garnishes gives you twelve
choices, not seven. If you decline
the meat (vegetarian, or just not interested), you have 16 possibilities, the
null set being an element of every set.
My wife and I are fans of
Romano’s Macaroni Grill. She can
avoid gluten by substituting vegetables for pasta with her fish or chicken
dish. I like to build my own pasta by selecting pomodoro or bolognese sauce
with different vegetables and meats to go with the spaghetti.
I
was washing my hands when I heard a commercial for their “Seven Dollars in
Seven Minutes” lunch menu. “Seven pasta choices for seven dollars in seven minutes,” the man’s voice said. He listed them: Spaghetti Bolognese, Sausage Rigatoni, Baked
Ravioli, and Spaghetti Verdi. “That’s just four,” countered the woman. The man replied that you could add your
choice of grilled chicken, Italian sausage, or shrimp. “That’s seven!” the
woman beamed. She was wrong.
One of four entrées times one of three garnishes is twelve possible
selections. Add the no-meat option
and you get sixteen choices for seven dollars in less than seven minutes.
If you want to tweet about combinatorics, you can find an
international Twitter group managed from Italy: https://twitter.com/CombinatoricsIt
PREVIOUSLY ON NECESSARY FACTS
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