Question

A golf club manufacturer makes drivers with 4 different shaft lengths, 3 different lofts, 2 different grips, and 2 different club head materials. How many different combinations are possible?

Answer 1

`48` combinations

Explanation:

There is a formulaic way to solve this, but knowing the concept makes this problem understandable.

There are 4 different shafts: S1, S2, S3, and S4

And 3 different lofts: L1, L2, L3

Just looking at those combinations we have:

S1, L1
S2, L1
S3, L1
S4, L1
S1, L2
S2, L2
S3, L2
S4, L2
S1, L3
S2, L3
S3, L3
S4, L3

That is 12 combinations or `4*3`

Then there are 2 different grips that all those combinations could have so that makes a total of `24` combinations or `12*2`

Then there are 2 different head materials that those `24` combinations could have so that makes a total of `48` or `24*2`

Thus there are a total of `4*3*2*2=48` combinations