How would you apply the fundamental counting principle to a bike lock combination with 5 numbers?
A. 10 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 10
B. 10 x 5
C. 10 × 10 × 10 × 10 × 10
D. none of these
The correct answer is C. 10 × 10 × 10 × 10 × 10.
The fundamental counting principle states that if there are m ways to do one thing, and n ways to do another, then there are m × n ways to do both. In the case of a bike lock combination with 5 numbers, each number can be any digit from 0 to 9, which gives us 10 choices for each number.
Therefore, using the fundamental counting principle, we can determine that there are 10 × 10 × 10 × 10 × 10 = 100,000 possible combinations for a 5-number bike lock.