Edwin needs to buy a car, a truck, and a motorcycle for his shipping business. he wants the car to be red or yellow; the truck to be black, white, or silver; and the motorcycle to be green, blue, or orange. how many different combinations of vehicles does edwin have to choose from?

We can solve problems like this using multiplication rules. Since the order of colors and combinations does not matter, we can multiply all  values in any order we so choose. In this case, our values are colors and vehicles:

Car: Red, Yellow
Truck: Black, White, Silver
Motorcycle: Green, Blue, Orange

We have 2 options with a car, 3 options with a truck, and 3 options with a motorcycle. Since he wants one of each, we will multiply all of the color options together: 

2 x 3 x 3

= 18

Edwin has 18 different combination of vehicles to choose from.