Problem Solving Strategies

Prepared by: Chan Zhi Yun Yeap Qian Yu

Ibrahim Bey decided to take all his children and grandchildren to see a movie in the mall. The tickets cost RM5 for children and RM7 for adults. He spent RM116. How many children and how many adults went to the cinema?

 To use the Guess and Check strategy, you think about the problem and start by making a guess. You expect your first guess to be wrong, but it will give you some information to help you make a better guess next time. You could start by guessing 12 adults and 13 children. It's a good idea to keep a record of your guesses, like this:

You could start by guessing 12 adults and 13 children. It's a good idea to keep a record of your guesses, like this:

Guess Adult Child 1 12 13

Total money 149

The total money that you guessed is too high, because Ibrahim only spent RM116.

So you guess again-you have to subtract some adults and children.

Guess Adult Child

Total money 149 101

X X

The total money that you guessed is too low, because Ibrahim only spent RM116.

So you guess again - you have to subtract some adults and add some children.

Guess Adult Child

Total money 149 101 120

X X X

The total money that you guessed is slightly too high.

So you guess again - you subtract some adults and add some children since the ticket cost for adult is RM7 while for the children is RM5.
Guess 1 2 3 4 Adult 12 8 5 3 Child 13 9 17 19 Total money 149 101 120 116

X X X

In their biology class, Amy and John learned how to count a population of yeast cells. Using a special counting microscope, they counted the cells every hour and entered their data in a table. Time 9:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 Yeast Cells 9 18 36 72

Their teacher told them that the population would stop growing and remain stable at about 1152 cells. At what time would Amy and John discover that the population had stopped growing?

THE PATTERN Amy and John see a pattern in their data. The population doubles (approximately) every hour. THE PREDICTION At 13:00 there will be 144 cells; at 14:00 there will be 288 cell. At 15:00 , if the teacher is correct, there will be 576 cells. They will know the population has stopped growing at 16:00 if there are still 1152 cells.

A snail is trying to escape from a well 10ft deep. The snail can climb 2ft each day, but each night it slides back 1ft. How many days will the snail take to climb out of the wall?

 Read and Understand A snail needs to climb 10ft to escape from a well. It can climb 2ft per day. At night the snail slides back 1ft. 1. How far up the well will the snail be after the 1st day and the 1st night? 1ft 2. How far up the well will the snail be after the 2nd day? 3ft 3. How far up the well will the snail be after the 2nd day and 2nd night? 2ft

 Read and Understand A snail needs to climb 10ft to escape from a well. It can climb 2ft per day. At night the snail slides back 1ft. 1. How far up the well will the snail be after the 1st day and the 1st night? 1ft 2. How far up the well will the snail be after the 2nd day? 3ft 3. How far up the well will the snail be after the 2nd day and 2nd night? 2ft

 Plan and Solve At first you might think that the snail progresses 1 ft each day and will therefore take 10 days to escape. This answer is wrong, however, because it leaves out an important part of the problem. Try to solve a simpler problem. Change the problem to a simpler one based on a 3-ft well, and then try a 4-ft well to see if there is a pattern.

3ft well 4 ft well Up 2 ft from Up 2 ft from bottom bottom Night 1 Up 1 ft from bottom Up 1 ft from bottom Day 2 Up 3 ft from bottom Up 3 ft from bottom (OUT) Night 2 Up 2 ft from bottom Day 3 Up 4 ft from bottom (OUT)

Time Day 1

4. Using the information from the simpler 3ft well and 4ft well problems, describe the pattern. The number of days it takes to get our is 1 less than the depth of the well in feet. 5. How many days will the snail take to escape from the 10ft well? 9days

How many hours will a car traveling at 45 miles per hour take to catch up with a car traveling at 30 miles per hour if the slower car starts one hour before the faster car?

 Read and Understand What is the question we have to answer? 1. How long does it take for the faster car to catch the slower car? 2. What is the speed of the slower car? 30 miles per hour 3. What is the speed of the faster car? 45 miles per hour

 Solve it 1. Make a table with two rows and four columns. 2. The rows will identify the cars, and the columns will mark the hours. 3. Where the rows and columns intersect will indicate distance traveled since distance equals the speed times the amount of time traveled.

Hours 1 2 3 4 Slow Car 30 miles 60 miles 90 miles 120 miles Fast Car 0 miles 45 miles 90 miles 135 miles
At the end of the first hour, the faster car was just starting. At the end of the second hour, the faster car had gone 45 miles. At the end of the third hour, the faster car had gone 90 miles. This equals the distance traveled by the slower car in three hours. So, the faster car traveled for only two hours.

The school bus picks up many children on the way to school. The bus makes three stops altogether. At the first stop, 4 children get on the bus. At the next stop, 5 more children get on the bus. By the time the bus arrives at school, there are 13 children on the bus. How many more children got on the bus at the third stop?

 Solve it They may act it out by lining up 13 chairs in the classroom and modeling each addition of the children onto the bus. Once all the children who boarded the bus at the first two stops have taken their seats, the students can solve the problem by counting the empty seats.

1st STOP

2nd STOP

3rd STOP

1st, 2nd and 3rd STOP = 13 children

A rectangle has an area of 45 square meters. If the length of the rectangle is 9 meters, what are the width and the perimeter of the rectangle?

 You need to find the width of the rectangle. Then you need to find the perimeter or the rectangle. Area of rectangle = length width 45 = 9 w w=5m The width of the rectangle is 5 meters.

 Perimeter = 2W + 2L P = 2(5) + 2(9) P = 28 m

Siti has 3 green marbles, 2 red marbles and 4 yellow marbles. What fractional part of the marbles is red?

 You need to find how many marbles are in all. Then you need to find how many of the marbles are red. You can draw a picture to show the information. Then you can use the picture to find the answer.

 Draw 9 marbles.

G
Y

2/9 of the marbles are red.

Factor the following trinomial. x - x - 2

 The first term is x, which is the product of x and x. Therefore, the first term in each bracket must be x. x - x - 2 = (x) (x)

 The last term is -2. The possible factors are 2 or 1, we have the following choices. (x + 2) (x + 1) (x 2) (x 1) (x + 2) (x 1) (x 2) (x + 1) The only pair of the factors which gives x as the middle term is (x 2) (x + 1) Thus, x - x 2 = (x 2) (x + 1)

Mei Ling walked from Taman Mesra to pasar. It took 1 hour to walk from Taman Mesra to hypermarket. Then it took 35 minutes to walk from hypermarket to pasar. She arrived in pasar at 2:30 p.m. At what time did she leave Taman Mesra?

 You need to find what was the time when Siti left Taman Mesra. You can work backwards from the time Siti reached pasar. Then subtract the time it took to walk from hypermarket to pasar. Then subtract the time it took to walk from Taman Mesra to hypermarket.

 - Start at 2.30 p.m. This is the time Mei Ling reached pasar. - Subtract 35 minutes. This is the time it took to get from hypermarket to pasar. - Time is 12.55 p.m. - Subtract 1 hour. This is the time it took to get from Taman Mesra to hypermarket. - Mei Ling left Taman Mesra at 11.55 a.m.

Siva, Ali and Ah Ming have their hats and slippers mixed up. Each boy puts on another boyss hat and a different boys slipper. Siva wears Ah Mings hat. Whose hat and slipper does each boy wear?

 Facts: - Siva wears Ah Mings hat. - Each wears another boys hat. - Each wears a different boys slipper. Make a table and organize the given information. Through elimination you can reach a conclusion.

Siva

Ali

Ah Ming

Hat
Slipper

Ah Ming
Ali

Siva
Ah Ming

Ali
Siva

- Siva wears Ah Mings hat, so he must wear Alis slipper. - Ali didnt wear his own hat, so he must wear Sivas hat and Ah Mings slipper. - That means that Ah Ming wears Alis hat and Sivas slipper.