There's something called the Basic Counting Principle, which says this:
Suppose one event can be chosen in "p" different ways and another INDEPENDENT event can be chosen in "q" different ways. Then the two events can be chosen successively in "p * q" ways.
Example: suppose you have 5 different shirts and 3 different pairs of slacks. If an "outfit" consists of one shirt and one pair of slacks, how many different outfits can you make?
The first event, chosing a shirt, can be done in 5 ways. If the choice of a pair of slacks is independent of which shirt you choose, then there are 3 ways to pick a pair of slacks. So, the number of outfits you can form would be 5 * 3, or 15.
Your problem involves this principle.
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