Chapter 1
The Art of
Problem Solving
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Section 1-3
Strategies for Problem Solving
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Strategies for Problem Solving
- Objectives:
• Know George Polya’s four-step method of
problem solving.
• Be able to apply various strategies for solving
problems.
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A General Problem-Solving Method p. 19
Polya’s Four-Step Method
Step 1 Understand the problem. Read and analyze
carefully. What are you to find?
Step 2 Devise a plan.
Step 3 Carry out the plan. Be persistent.
* Step 4 Look back and check. Make sure that
your answer is reasonable and that you’ve
answered the question.
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Strategies for Problem Solving p. 20
Make a table or a chart.
Look for a pattern.
Solve a similar, simpler problem.
Draw a sketch.
Use inductive reasoning.
Write an equation and solve it.
If a formula applies, use it.
Work backward.
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Strategies for Problem Solving
Guess and check.
Use trial and error.
Use common sense.
Look for a “catch” if an answer seems too
obvious or impossible.
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Example: Using a Table or Chart p. 20
A man put a pair of rabbits in a cage. During the
first month the rabbits produced no offspring but
each month thereafter produced one new pair of
rabbits. If each new pair produced reproduces in the
same manner, how many pairs of rabbits will there
be at the end of the 5th month?
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Example: Solution
Step 1 Understand the problem. How many
pairs of rabbits will there be at the end of
five months? The first month, each pair
produces no new rabbits, but each month
thereafter each pair produces a new pair.
Step 2 Devise a plan. Construct a table to help with
the pattern.
Month Number of Number Number of Pairs
Pairs at Start Produced at the End
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Example (solution continued)
Step 3 Carry out the plan.
Month Number of Number Number of Pairs
Pairs at Start Produced at the End
1st 1 0 1
2nd 1 1 2
3rd 2 1 3
4th 3 2 5
5th 5 3 8
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Example (solution continued)
Solution: There will be 8 pairs of rabbits.
Step 4 Look back and check. This can be checked
by going back and making sure that it has
been interpreted correctly. Double-check the
arithmetic.
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Example: Working Backward p. 21
Ronnie goes to the racetrack with his buddies on a
weekly basis. One week he tripled his money, but
then lost $12. He took his money back the next
week, doubled it, but then lost $40. The following
week he tried again, taking his money back with
him. He quadrupled it, and then played well enough
to take that much home, a total of $224. How much
did he start with the first week?
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Example: Solution
Because his final amount was $224 and this represents
four times the amount he started with on the third week,
we divide $224 by 4 to find that he started the third week
with $56. Before he lost $40 the second week, he had this
$56 plus the $40 he lost, giving him $96.
The $96 represented double what he started with, so he
started with $96 divided by 2, or $48, the second week.
Repeating this process once more for the first week,
before his $12 loss he had $48 + $12 = $60. This
represents triple what he started with, so we divide $60 by
3 to find that he started with $20.
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Example: Solution
To check,
1st week: (3 × $20) – $12 = $60 – $12 = $48
2nd week: (2 × $48) – $40 = $96 – $40 = $56
3rd week: (4 × $56) = $224 (His final amount)
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Example: Using Trial and Error
The mathematician Augustus De Morgan lived in
the nineteenth century. He made the following
statement: “I was x years old in the year x2.” In what
year was he born?
(Don’t forget the question.)
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Example: Solution
He lived in the nineteenth century, which means
during the 1800s. Find a perfect square that is
between 1800 and 1900.
422 = 1764
432 = 1849
442 = 1936
43 is the only natural number that works.
De Morgan was 43 in 1849. Subtract 43 from
1849 to get that he was born in 1806.
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Example: Considering a Simpler
Problem p. 23-34
The digit farthest to the right in a counting number
is called the ones or units digit, because it tells how
many ones are contained in the number when
grouping by tens is considered. What is the ones (or
units) digit in 24000?
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Example: Solution
Recall that 24000 means that 2 is used as a factor
4000 times.
To answer the question, we examine some smaller
powers of 2 and then look for a pattern. We start
with the exponent 1 and look at the first twelve
powers of 2.
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Example: Solution
Notice that in any one of the four rows above, the
ones digit is the same all the way across the row. The
final row, which contains the exponents 4, 8, and 12,
has the ones digit 6. Each of these exponents is
divisible by 4 and, because 4000 is divisible by 4, we
can use inductive reasoning to predict that the units
digit in 24000 is 6.
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Example: Drawing a Sketch
An array of nine dots is arranged in a 3 × 3 square
as shown below. Join the dots with exactly four
straight lines segments. You are not allowed to pick
up your pencil from the paper and may not trace
over a segment that has already been drawn.
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Example: Solution
Through trial and error with different attempts
such as:
We find an answer is:
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Example: Using Common Sense
Two currently minted United States coins together have
a total value of $1.05. One is not a dollar. What are the
two coins? * Pay attention to wording… Brainteaser type
Solution problems often rely more on common sense.
Our initial reaction might be, “The only way to have
two such coins with a total of $1.05 is to have a nickel
and a dollar, but the problem says that one of them is
not a dollar.” This statement is indeed true. What we
must realize here is that the one that is not a dollar is
the nickel, and the other coin is a dollar! So the two
coins are a dollar and a nickel.
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