This past Saturday’s sneak-peek at spring let us break the rules a little and have dessert — ice cream, specifically — before dinner. Both Max and Nora got to enjoy the sugary treat, as shown below.
As the kids ordered their cones, I wondered just how many distinct combinations could be spooned up by our local ice creamery?
This would be, of course, subject to a few guidelines:
- Sugar cones can bear up to two scoops, waffle cones up to three.
- Fruit flavored scoops cannot be combined with other fruit-flavored scoops.
- If a cone has one chunk-based scoop in it, all scoops need to be chunk-based.
The following flavors are currently listed on the menu for selection:
| Fruit flavors | Chunk-based | Other flavors |
| Strawberry Lemon Cello Orange Sherbet Watermelon Sherbet Pineapple Coconut Chunk Bananas Foster Chunk |
Rocky Road Chunk Pineapple Coconut Chunk Chocolate Fudge Chunk Peppermint Stick Chunk Bananas Foster Chunk |
Chocolate Vanilla Maple Coffee |
With order counting (i.e., Chocolate atop Vanilla on a Sugar Cone is not the same as Vanilla atop Chocolate on the same cone), how many distinct cones can be created?
As always, please submit your responses to GeekDad Central for your chance at this week’s $50 Gift Certificate from our ice-cream loving friends at ThinkGeek. Good luck, and happy puzzling!
