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GEC 14 Course:
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Mathematics in the Modern World Name:
Second Semester 2023 – 2024 Notes
Lesson 03
Problem Solving
Faculty: Jayson A. Lucilo

This lesson contains 11 pages (including this cover page) and this has an activity with 9
problems with subquestions. Check to see if any of the pages is missing. Enter all requested
information on the top portion of the last page.

The first few pages contains lesson discussion about the topic and towards the end, several
exercises which needs to be answered are provided. Unlike with the examinations, you may use
your books, notes, or any calculator on answering this activity.

The following rules apply:

Packet which is a work in progress. Should you
find erroneous content and typographi cal
• This is a beta version of the MMW Learning errors, please send me an e-mail thru
[email protected].
Problem Points Scor
• This should be used only as learning material e
of students under my class and not for any
1 10
com mercial purposes. Some sources may not
yet properly cited.
2 5
• Write legibly. Organize your work in a rea
sonably neat, systematic and logical manner 3 5
on the space provided. Work scattered all over
the page without a clear ordering will receive 4 5
minimal credit.
5 5
• Mysterious or unsupported answers will not
receive full credit. Meanwhile, a correct answer
6 5
unsupported by calculations, explanation, or al
gebraic work will receive no credit. Whereas an
incorrect answer supported by substantially cor 7 5
rect calculations and explanations may merit
par tial credit. 8 5

• If you need more space, use the back of the 9 5

pages. Clearly indicate when you have done
this on the specific item number to facilitate Total: 50
easy checking.

Do not write on the table to the right.

GEC 14 (MMW) Lesson 03 - Page 2 of 11 Second Semester 2023 – 2024 Problem

Solving
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Contents
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1 Introduction 2

2 Steps in Problem Solving 3 2.1 Understand the Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . 3 2.2 Devising a Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2.3 Carrying
Out The Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 2.4 Looking Back . . . . . . . . . . . . .
...........................4

3 Strategies in Problem Solving 4 4 Sample Problems 5 5 Self-Assessment 6 6 Activity

Worksheet 8

Problem Solving

1 Introduction
Let’s Try This!
 The Price you have to pay

A limited-edition BU ID lanyard is on sale priced at P hp97.00 only for today. Unfortunately, your
cash is just enough to get you through the day. Your two generous friends offered to lend you P
hp50.00 bill each so all of you will have that limited edition lanyard.

Now, you have enough money to buy the lanyard. You then bought it and were given a change of
P hp3.00.

As you still have P hp3.00, you decided to return P hp1.00 each to your friends, which leaves
you with a P hp49.00 debt to each of them.

Since your remaining balance to each friend is P hp49.00 and you have a remaining P hp1.00 at
hand, that is:

P hp49.00 + P hp49.00 = P hp98.00 (amount payable to your friends)

P hp98.00 + P hp1.00 = P hp99.00 (add the P hp1.00 is available at hand)

The total amount, as shown in the computation above is P hp99.00. But you originally have P
hp100.00, where is the other P hp1.00?
GEC 14 (MMW) Lesson 03 - Page 3 of 11 Second Semester 2023 – 2024

2 Steps in Problem Solving

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 Steps in Problem Solving
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In 1945, George Polya published a book How To Solve It which quickly became his most
prized publication. It sold over one million copies and has been translated into 17
languages. In this book he identifies four basic principles of problem solving.

1. Understand the problem.

2. Devise a plan (translate).

3. Carry out the plan (solve).

4. Look back (check and interpret)

2.1 Understand the Problem

• What is the unknown? What are the data? What is the condition?

• Is it possible to satisfy the condition? Is the condition sufficient to determine the unknown?
Or is it insufficient? Or redundant? Or contradictory?

• Draw a figure. Introduce suitable notation.

 • Separate the various parts of the condition. Can you write them down?

2.2 Devising a Plan

• Find the connection between the data and the unknown. You may be obligated to consider
auxiliary problems if an immediate connection cannot be found. You should obtain
eventually a plan of the solution.

• Have you seen it before? Or have you seen the same problem in a slightly different

form? • Do you know a related problem? Do you know a theorem that could be useful?

• Look at the unknown! Try to think of a familiar problem having the same or a similar
unknown.

• Here is a problem related to yours and solved before. Could you use it? Could you use its
result? Could you use its method? Should you introduce some auxiliary element in order to
make its use possible?

• Could you restate the problem? Could you restate it still differently? Go back to definitions.

• If you cannot solve the proposed problem, try to solve first some related problem. Could you
imagine a more accessible related problem? Could you solve a part of the problem? Keep
only a part of the condition, drop the other part; how far is the unknown then determined,
how can it vary? Could you derive something useful from the data? Could you think of
other data appropriate to determine the unknown? Could you change the unknown or data,
or both if necessary, so that the new unknown and the new data are nearer to each other?
GEC 14 (MMW) Lesson 03 - Page 4 of 11 Second Semester 2023 – 2024

• Did you use all the data? Did you use the whole condition? Have you taken into account all
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essential notions involved in the problem?

2.3 Carrying Out The Plan

• Carry out your plan of the solution, check each step. Can you see clearly that the step is
correct? Can you prove that it is correct?

2.4 Looking Back

• Examine the solution obtained.

• Can you check the result? Can you check the argument?

• Can you derive the solution differently? Can you see it at a glance?

• Can you use the result, or the method, for some other problem?

3 Strategies in Problem Solving

1. Make a Table or an Organize List
 2. Draw a Diagram, Picture or a Model

3. Guess and Check

4. Logical Reasoning and Elimination

5. Act out

6. Find a Pattern

• Work Backward
• Simplify the Problem
GEC 14 (MMW) Lesson 03 - Page 5 of 11 Second Semester 2023 – 2024

4 Sample Problems

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1. Lea, Riza, Brian and Trevor have different favorite colors among red, blue, green and
orange. No person’s name contains the same number of letter as his or her favorite color.
Trevor and the boy who likes blue live in different parts of town. Red is the favorite color of
one of the girls. What is each person’s favorite color?

2. Noah wants to make a soup. The recipe says he should use one liter of water, but he does
not have a one-liter container. Instead, he has a five-liter container and a three-liter
container. How can he use these two containers to measure one liter of water?

3. Maria celebrated her birthday party in a private home’s poolside garden. It was attended by
30 persons. If each person shook hands with each other exactly once, then how many
handshakes took place?

4. Mang Tomas owns goats and chickens. Counting heads there are 39. Counting the legs
there are 110. How many goats and how many chickens does Mang Tomas have?

5. During the BU Week Celebration, the Sports Club organized a Dart Competition. It was
announced that each dart that lands in a region of the target may score the following
points: 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10. Each competitor is allowed to throw five darts at the target.
Assuming that all darts landed on the region, which of the following total scores are not
possible:
 6, 14, 17, 38, 42, 58

6. Miriam went to Legazpi City to shop. She went to the Ayala Mall, spent half of her money
and then P hp500 more. Then, went to Gaisano Mall, spent half of the remaining money
and then P hp500 more. She then had no money left, not even a pamasahe to go home.
How much money did she have to begin with when she went to the Ayala Mall?

7. Find the difference when the sum of the first 100 positive odd integers is subtracted from
the first 100 positive even integers.

8. Keith bought five pencils and pens at a total cost of P hp29. A pencil costs P hp4 and a pen
costs P hp7. How many pens did Keith buy?
GEC 14 (MMW) Lesson 03 - Page 6 of 11 Second Semester 2023 – 2024

5 Self-Assessment

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On your free time, solve the problem below. Refrain from looking for the answer on the internet.
Solve this on your own. It is more fulfilling that way. Use the next page provided for your solution.

The Problem

Facts

1. There are 5 houses in five different colors.

2. In each house lives a person with a different nationality.

3. These five owners drink a certain type of beverage, smoke a certain brand of cigar and
keep a certain pet.

4. No owners have the same pet, smoke the same brand of cigar or drink the same beverage.

Hints

• the Brit lives in the red house

 • the Swede keeps dogs as pets

• the Dane drinks tea

• the green house is on the left of the white house

• the green house’s owner drinks coffee

• the person who smokes Pall Mall rears birds

• the owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill

• the man living in the center house drinks milk

• the Norwegian lives in the first house

• the man who smokes blends lives next to the one who keeps cats

• the man who keeps horses lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill

• the owner who smokes BlueMaster drinks beer

• the German smokes Prince

• the Norwegian lives next to the blue house

• the man who smokes blend has a neighbor who drinks water

The question is: Who owns the fish?

GEC 14 (MMW) Lesson 03 - Page 7 of 11 Second Semester 2023 – 2024

Mathematics in the Modern World

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Second Semester 2023 – 2024
Self-Assessment Report
Name: Time Sarted:
Course: Time Ended:
Date Conducted: Total Time Spent:

Trial 1

Nationality

Beverage

House Color

Brand of Cigar

Pet
Trial 2

Nationality

Beverage

House Color

Brand of Cigar

Pet

Trial 3

Nationality

Beverage

House Color

Brand of Cigar

Pet

Trial 4

Nationality

Beverage

House Color

Brand of Cigar

Pet

Trial 5
 Nationality

Beverage

House Color

Brand of Cigar

Pet

GEC 14 (MMW) Lesson 03 - Page 8 of 11 Second Semester 2023 – 2024

6 Activity Worksheet

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 ci l Problem Solving
Name: Signature:
Course: Date:

Things I did to answer this worksheet (check all that applies to you):
Read ahead before the lesson. Watched the lecture video posted in G Classroom. Attended
the synchronous class. Discussed with my classmates (online group study). Study the lecture
notes provided. Self-study via online sources (YouTube videos, etc.).

1. (10 points) The first few lines of the Christmas song Twelve Days of Christmas:
On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me, a partidge in a pear tree. On the
second day of Christmas my true love sent to me, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear
tree. On the third day of Christmas my true love sent to me, three French hens, two turtle
doves and a partridge in a pear tree. And so on.
In all, how many gifts were sent by the True Love to his Lover from the first day to the twelfth
day of Christmas?
After the gift-giving, which of these gifts has the highest quantity? By how many?
GEC 14 (MMW) Lesson 03 - Page 9 of 11 Second Semester 2023 – 2024
2. (5 points) John bought eight old coins from Andrew, Andrew told John, “These eight old coins

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look alike. But one is slightly heavier than the others. I will give you these old coins for free if
by using a balance scale, you can determine the heavier one in exactly three wieghings.”
John was so happy to take home the free old coins. How did he do that?
3. (5 points) During the first day of classes, every person at the virtual meeting of thirty-five
people said hello to each of the other people at the meeting exactly once. How many “hellos”
were said at the meeting?
GEC 14 (MMW) Lesson 03 - Page 10 of 11 Second Semester 2023 – 2024

4. (5 points) To improve her handwriting, Pauline practices writing the numbers 1 to 200 in
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words. How many times will she have written the word “one” in all?

5. (5 points) Find the difference when the sum of the first 100 positive odd integers is subtracted
from the first 100 positive even integers.
 6. (5 points) Find two whole numbers whose product is 1, 000, 000. Neither of the two numbers
has any zeroes in it.
GEC 14 (MMW) Lesson 03 - Page 11 of 11 Second Semester 2023 – 2024

7. (5 points) Present a challenging problem on the space provided. Then, show your solution

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8. (5 points) Kindly discuss briefly what you have significantly learned in this lesson. You may
also ask a question about this topic.

9. (5 points) Timeliness: