Fred needs to do quite a few errands. He needs to stop by the cleaners, the post office, the hardware store, and the bank. There are a number of ways he can tackle his list of stops. How many ways can he accomplish his tasks?
16
To determine how many ways Fred can accomplish his tasks, we need to calculate the number of permutations. Since Fred needs to accomplish the tasks in a specific order (cleaners, post office, hardware store, bank), we will use the concept of permutations.
There are 4 tasks that Fred needs to complete, so we have 4 options for the first task, 3 options for the second task (once the first task is completed), 2 options for the third task (once the first two tasks are completed), and only 1 option for the last task (once the first three tasks are completed).
Therefore, the total number of ways Fred can accomplish his tasks can be calculated as:
4 options for the first task * 3 options for the second task * 2 options for the third task * 1 option for the last task = 4 * 3 * 2 * 1 = 24
So, Fred can accomplish his tasks in 24 different ways.