07.05.07
Food + Math = Fun
There’s a nice Math Problem on MetaFilter right now, inspired by an Arby’s promotion. If you can select five items from a set of eight, with repetitions allowed, for one price, how many possible meals can you eat? (The answer is 792).
It reminds me of a problem I put on the Math E-304 final this year:
Harvard Square has three restaurants that sell burritos: Qdoba, Felipé’s, and Boloco. I’ve decided to eat a burrito for lunch every day of the week. How many ways can I do that if:
- I have no preference how often I visit each restaurant?
- I want to eat at Felipé’s three times and Qdoba twice?
- I want to eat at each no more than twice?
Answers after the jump, if you want to try them.
(HT: 43 Folders)
Answers: 343, 10, 90
technorati tags:math, food, combinatorics
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Hypertext « Vlorbik on Math Ed said,
July 6, 2007 at 2:15 pm
[…] Hypertext July 6th, 2007 Lotsa fine counter-reform rantage: Jerome Dancis. Interesting exercises posted recently at What the heck and JD2718. […]
David said,
July 7, 2007 at 3:35 pm
I would have added the phrase “not including weekends” in the problem statement.
leingang said,
July 8, 2007 at 7:40 am
Good point, David, and several of my students asked for clarification on that point. (I deleted the embarassing part of your comment correcting my answer to the first part. Don’t worry; I had the right answer at the time I corrected their papers. I was being lazy and remembered the wrong power of three)