Santa's elves are creating treat bags containing a selection of kit kats, reese's cups and almond joys. (a) how many different types of bags can they make containing 8 chocolate bars.

6561 types of bags

Explanation:

You have eight spots (eight chocolate bars) and each spot can be filled out with 3 items (kit kat, reese's or almond joys). So, all you have to do is multiply every possibility for every spot. Thus, the thing looks like this:

3x3x3x3x3x3x3x3 = 6561 possibilities or

3^8 = 6561 possibilities

All kit kats, all almond joys, and mixed kit kats and almond joys