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Math Problem Solving

The document describes a problem involving arranging tennis balls in triangular patterns with increasing numbers of balls in each row. It uses Polya's four-step problem solving method: 1) Understanding that more balls are added to each new row of the triangle, 2) Devising a plan to model the pattern in a table, 3) Carrying out the plan by filling in the table to determine that a triangle with 8 rows will contain 36 balls, and 4) Evaluating to check that the solution follows the pattern of each row containing one additional ball.

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Hazel Fuentes
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156 views3 pages

Math Problem Solving

The document describes a problem involving arranging tennis balls in triangular patterns with increasing numbers of balls in each row. It uses Polya's four-step problem solving method: 1) Understanding that more balls are added to each new row of the triangle, 2) Devising a plan to model the pattern in a table, 3) Carrying out the plan by filling in the table to determine that a triangle with 8 rows will contain 36 balls, and 4) Evaluating to check that the solution follows the pattern of each row containing one additional ball.

Uploaded by

Hazel Fuentes
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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PROBLEM 1: David arranged loaves of bread on 6 shelves in the bakery.

He put 1 loaf on the top shelf, 3


loaves on the second shelf, and 5 loaves on the third shelf. If he continues this pattern, how many loaves
will he put on the 6th shelf?

Polya's Four-Steps in Problem Solving are:

1. Understanding the problem.

2. Devising a plan.

3. Carrying out the plan.

4. Evaluating the solution.

Understanding the problem:

David arranged loaves of bread on 6 shelves in the bakery. He put 1 loaf on the top shelf, 3 loaves on the second shelf,
and 5 loaves on the third shelf. If he continues this pattern, how many loaves will he put on the 6th shelf?

Devising a plan:

We can see that David is increasing the number of loaves on each shelf by 2, starting from 1 on the top shelf. Therefore,
we can use this pattern to find the number of loaves on the 6th shelf.

Carrying out the plan:

To find the number of loaves on the 6th shelf, we can add 2 to the number of loaves on the 5th shelf. We know that
there are 5 loaves on the 3rd shelf, and the number of loaves increases by 2 for each subsequent shelf. Therefore, we
can use the formula:

Number of loaves on the nth shelf = (n - 1) x 2 + 1


Using this formula, we can find the number of loaves on the 5th shelf:
Number of loaves on the 5th shelf = (5 - 1) x 2 + 1 = 9
Finally, we can add 2 to this number to find the number of loaves on the 6th shelf:
Number of loaves on the 6th shelf = 9 + 2 = 11
Therefore, David will put 11 loaves on the 6th shelf.

Evaluating the solution:

We can check our answer by verifying that the number of loaves increases by 2 for each shelf. Starting from the 3rd
shelf, the number of loaves is 5, 7, 9, and finally 11 on the 6th shelf, which confirms that our solution is correct.
PROBLEM 2: You arrange tennis balls in triangular shapes as shown. How many balls will there be in a
triangle that has 8 rows?

Understanding the problem:


We know that we arrange tennis balls in triangles as shown.
We want to know how many balls there are in a triangle that has 8 rows.

Devising a plan:
A good strategy is to make a table and list how many balls are in triangles of different rows.

One row: It is simple to see that a triangle with one row has only one ball.

[Figure 2]
Two rows: For a triangle with two rows, we add the balls from the top row to the balls from the bottom row. It is useful
to make a sketch of the separate rows in the triangle.

[Figure 3]

3=1+2

Three rows: We add the balls from the top triangle to the balls from the bottom row.

[Figure 4]

6=3+3

Now we can fill in the first three rows of a table.

Number of Rows Number of Balls

1 1

2 3

3 6
We can see a pattern.
To create the next triangle, we add a new bottom row to the existing triangle.
The new bottom row has the same number of balls as there are rows. (For example, a triangle with 3 rows has 3 balls in
the bottom row.)
To get the total number of balls for the new triangle, we add the number of balls in the old triangle to the number of balls
in the new bottom row.

Carrying out the plan:

We can complete the table by following the pattern we discovered.

Number of balls = number of balls in previous triangle + number of rows in the new triangle

Number of Rows Number of Balls

1 1

2 3

3 6

4 6+4=10

5 10+5=15

6 15+6=21

7 21+7=28

8 28+8=36
Answer There are 36 balls in a triangle arrangement with 8 rows.

Evaluating the solution:

Each row of the triangle has one more ball than the previous one. In a triangle with 8 rows,

row 1 has 1 ball, row 2 has 2 balls, row 3 has 3 balls, row 4 has 4 balls, row 5 has 5 balls, row 6 has 6 balls, row 7 has 7
balls, row 8 has 8 balls.

When we add these we get: 1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8=36 balls The answer checks out.

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