A restaurant patron is making a salad. His salad can consist of just lettuce, or he can add any of the following items: cheese, mushrooms, olives, tomatoes, sunflower seeds, green peppers, carrots. How many different variations of a salad are possible? There are variations of a salad possible. (Simplify youranswer.) n example Get more help. Clear all

Step 1 ：The problem is asking for the number of combinations of salad ingredients. This is a combinatorics problem.

Step 2 ：The patron can choose to include or not include each ingredient, so there are 2 choices for each ingredient.

Step 3 ：Since there are 7 ingredients, the total number of combinations is \(2^7\).

Step 4 ：However, the problem states that the salad can consist of just lettuce, so we need to subtract 1 from the total to exclude the case where no ingredients are added.

Step 5 ：total_combinations = 127

Step 6 ：Final Answer: The number of different variations of a salad are possible is \(\boxed{127}\).