# Notatypewriter's Blog

Umm… what?

## Quiznos on Craig Math Fail #fb

with one comment

I was at the Quiznos near CMU on Craig St today and noticed their 2 for \$5 deal. For \$5, you get to choose two items from their list of 20 items, which includes 7 salads, 5 Bullets, 4 Sammies, and 4 soups. From this menu, Quiznos says you can make over 250 combinations. But they’re wrong!

The actual number of combinations is ${20 \choose 2} + 20 = 210$. ${20 \choose 2}$ is for the number of combinations of distinct items and the final $20$ is for the number of choices where you get two of the same item.

I think I know why they say 250 though. The official Quiznos menu has 23 items, for a total of 253 combinations. Quiznos franchises must source promotional material from Quiznos corporate, which prints everything up and assumes the 23 items.

This isn’t as satisfying as catching Quiznos in a fail-moment, but it serves to prove that math is useful!

Thanks to Alan and Kevin for some math help. (Alan uses pirates and gold, but I like my reasoning better.)