finding the number of potential outcomes of flipping a coin or some other chance related outcome.

coin_flip_variations.rb

def combination(num_tosses)
  if num_tosses == 0
    potential_outcomes = 0
  elsif potential_outcomes = ["heads", "tails"].length ** num_tosses
  end
  return "There are #{potential_outcomes} potential outcomes"
end
puts combination(8) #=> "There are 256 potential outcomes"

# another way to do this is with #repeated_permutation
#def combination(num_tosses)
#  if num_tosses == 0
#    0
#  else
#    ["heads", "tails"].repeated_permutation(num_tosses).to_a.length
#  end
#end
#puts combination(4) => 16

#if you inspect the array => 
#=> [["heads", "heads", "heads", "heads"], ["heads", "heads", "heads", "tails"], ["heads", "heads", "tails", "heads"],
#=>  ["heads", "heads", "tails", "tails"], ["heads", "tails", "heads", "heads"], ["heads", "tails", "heads", "tails"], 
#=>  ["heads", "tails", "tails", "heads"], ["heads", "tails", "tails", "tails"], ["tails", "heads", "heads", "heads"],
#=>  ["tails", "heads", "heads", "tails"], ["tails", "heads", "tails", "heads"], ["tails", "heads", "tails", "tails"], 
#=>  ["tails", "tails", "heads", "heads"], ["tails", "tails", "heads", "tails"], ["tails", "tails", "tails", "heads"], 
#=>  ["tails", "tails", "tails", "tails"]]