PAMANTASAN NG CABUYAO

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, ARTS AND SCIENCES

COURSE CODE: MAT101

COURSE TITLE: MATHEMATICS IN THE MODERN WORLD

COURSE INTENDED A. Knowledge

LEARNING 1. Discuss and argue about the nature of mathematics, what it is, how its
OUTCOMES: expressed, represented, and used.
2. Use different types of reasoning to justify statements and arguments
made about mathematics and mathematical concepts.
3. Discuss the language and symbols of mathematics
B. Skills
4. Use a variety of statistical tools to process and manage numerical data;
5. Analyze codes and coding schemes used for identification, privacy, and
security purpose;
6. Use mathematics in other areas such as finance, voting, health and
medicine, business, environment, arts and design, and recreation.
C. Values
7. Appreciate the nature and uses of mathematics in everyday life.
8. Affirm honesty and integrity in the application of mathematics to
various human endeavours.

LEARNING MATERIAL
FOR WEEK NUMBER:
5
I. TITLE: Module 3: Problem Solving and Reasoning
Section 1 : Inductive and Deductive Reasoning
Section 2: Problem-Solving Strategies
Section 3: Pattern Recognition as a Problem-Solving Strategy

II. OBJECTIVES: After this lesson, you are expected to:

1. distinguish inductive reasoning from deductive reasoning

2. give examples of inductive and deductive processes of inference
3. use either the inductive reasoning or deductive reasoning to solve practical
problems
4. explain Polya’s four-step problem-solving strategy
5. apply Polya’s four-step problem-solving strategy in solving certain
problems
6. use Polya’ s four-step problem-solving strategy to design model solutions to
practical problems that arise in nature
7. write statements in symbolic forms
8. write symbolic statements in words
9. construct a truth table for a given compound statement
10. use truth table for logical equivalence
11. write a conditional statement in other forms

III. INTRODUCTION: This module discusses the fundamental principles of solving problems like the
inductive and deductive reasoning, along with some specific processes that can be
applied to certain types of problems. It aims to develop students’ skills in pattern
recognition to find the solution and to answer various types of problems that pose

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intellectual and recreational challenge. It emphasizes the use of existing patterns that
abound in nature to formulate such solution.

IV. CONTENTS:
SECTION 1: Inductive and Deductive Reasoning

Deductive reasoning and inductive reasoning are methods of making inferences, used in developing
statements about some mathematical concepts or phenomenon.

The Distinction between the two processes.

Deductive Reasoning Inductive Reasoning

General Principle Specific

Cases

Pattern Pattern

Specific
Statement General Statement

Consider the following arguments:

Argument 1: The sum of two odd integers is an even number.
m and n are odd integers.
Thus, m + n is even.

Argument 2: 3 + 5 = 8, 7 + 11 = 18, and 9 + 21 = 30.

Therefore, the sum of two odd integers is even.

In Argument 1, the first two statements are the premises of the argument while the third statement
is the conclusion. It uses the deductive from of reasoning in drawing a specific statement (conclusion) from
a general principle (premise, known to be valid and true). This method of reasoning ensures the truth of the
conclusion provided that the premises are true. Other words, if the premises are true, there is no other way
that the conclusion is false.

In Argument 2, the first statement is the premises while the second is the conclusion. It uses the
inductive reasoning. The premise (or premises) consist of specific cases while the conclusion is just a
generalization of what is claimed in the premise. Unlike in the deductive process, the premises in the
inductive process can only strengthen the truth of the conclusion but do not guarantee the truth of the
conclusion.

Example 1:

Consider the following statements:

In a right triangle, the two acute angles are complementary.
Triangle ABC has B  90  .

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Therefore, A  C  90 

The first premise is a known property of right triangles. The next statement actually the triangle ABC is a
right triangle with angles A and C being acute. This follows from the property that the sum of the interior
angles must be 180°, and angel A is already 90°. Thus, the conclusion is definitely true and the argument is
valid.

Example 2:

Consider the following series of operations: Multiply your age by 8, add 6 to the result, then divide the sum
by 2, and finally subtract 3 from the quotient. Note that the series of operations generates 4 times your age.

Now represent the age by a variable x with first operation resulting in 8x. The second operation gives 8x + 6,
8x  6
and the third operation gives . Using Algebra, this value can be simplified into 4x + 3. Performing the
2
last operation yields

4x  3  3  4x
This indicates that the given series of operations is actually equivalent to simplify multiplying your
age by 4.

In the inductive approach, simply observe few cases instead of assigning the variable x for the age.
For example, if your age is 7, then the series of operations yield the following values.

8 x7  56
56  6  62
62  2  31
31  3  28
A person aged 12 years will generate the following values:

8 x 12 =96
96  6  102
102  2  51
51  3  48
Likewise, a 35-year old person will have the following values:

8 x 35 =280
280  6  286
286  2  143
143  3  140
Observing the results, one may conclude that the series of operations correspond to multiplying the
age by 4. So, while the results are the same using both deductive and inductive approaches, the process of
making inference clearly differs in the two cases. Again, as a matter of emphasis, inferences made by
inductive process do not render absolute truth (only conjecture). They can be proven to be true using the
deductive approach.

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This process is applied to establish mathematical truths. One starts by observing patterns of events,
generalizing the pattern by a formula or mathematical rule, then proving the conjecture by deductive
process.

For example, a conjecture that “if the sum of two natural numbers is even, then their product is also
even” can be made by observing that 2 + 4 = 6 and 2 x 4 = 8 or 4 + 10 = 14 and 4 x 10 = 40. This conjecture is
not an absolute truth as in the case 3 + 5 = 8 (an even) but 3 x 5 = 15 (an odd). A statement or an example that
disprove the conjecture is a counterexample. Only a single counterexample is needed to disprove a
conjecture.

Example 3:
The statement that “any real number divided by itself is the number 1” is incorrect.
0
Zero is a real number, yet is undefined (or not a real number).
0
Thus, the second statement is a counterexample.

Test yourself:
Identify the following statements if it is Deductive or Inductive Reasoning.
1. Jenny leaves for school at 7:00 am. Jenny is always on time. Therefore, Jenny assume then if she lives for
school at 7:00 am., she will always be on time.
2. All men are mortal. President Rody is a man. Therefore, Rody is mortal.
3. All first-year college students in the new curriculum take Mathematics in the Modern World. Matilda is a
first-year college students in the new curriculum. Therefore, Matilda takes Mathematics in the Modern
World.
4. The teacher uses Power point in the three classes. Therefore the teacher will use Power Point tomorrow.
5. James is a grandfather. James is bald. Therefore, all grandfathers are bald.
6. Rico is a first-year college student. Rico is a male. Therefore, all first-year college students are males.
7. All Filipinos eat rice. Ronnie is a Filipino. Therefore, Ronnie eats rice.
8. All household owners pay electric bills. Guiller is a household owner. Therefore, Guiller pays electric bills.
9. All aunts and uncles are love by their nieces and nephews. Liza and Ronnie are aunt and uncle. Therefore,
Liza and Ronnie are loved by their nieces and nephews.
10. All chicken that we have seen have been white. Therefore, all chickens are white.

** PROBLEM-SOLVING STRATEGIES **

In 1945, George Polya published the book How to Solve it: A New Aspect of Mathematical Method
which later became a widely accepted with problem-solving processes. Polya emphasized that the same
strategy can be applied when students encounter real-life problems. He encouraged teachers to promote a
more liberal approach to solving problems by giving more emphasis on students’ independence and less on
routine computation processes. Polya’s approach advocated the inductive process rather than deductive as
what most of his predecessors have promoted.
In summary, Polya’s strategy consisted of four phases:

Understand the Problem

Polya suggest the following guide questions to help a person understand the problem being solved:

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COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, ARTS AND SCIENCES

i. What is the unknown?

ii. What are the data?
iii. What is the condition?
iv. Is it possible to satisfy the condition?
v. Is the condition sufficient to determine the unknown?
vi. Draw a figure and introduce suitable notation.
vii. Separate the various parts of the condition. Can you write them down?

Devise a Plan

The next phase is devising a plan. This stage highlights one’s independence and ingenuity in coming
up with a self-designed course of action towards arriving at a reasonable solution to the problem at hand. At
this stage, you may need to refresh your memory with the concepts involved in the problem, especially the
definitions and properties of terms involved.
Polya suggests the following guide questions to help you design your plan of actions:

i. Have you seen it before? Or have you seen the same problem in a slightly different form?
ii. Do you know a related problem? Do you know a theorem that could be useful?
iii. If a related problem is available, could you use it? Could you use its results? Could you use its
method? Should you introduce some auxiliary elements in order to make is use possible?

Carry Out the Plan

Perform each step of the plan with care and precision. Keep a record of every result that you obtain.
If you get affirmative results, just keeping going; there is a nest stage of the process. If things do not turn out
to be as what you expected, then keep your alternatives open as you may need to revisit your plan.

Look Back
Finally, review your solution. Go back to the original problem and check if the obtained solution is
sufficient and consistent with what is asked. Check the soundness of your argument. Also, assess if you
obtained solution still applies at a large scale.
Now, let us consider this illustrations.

Example:

During a family gathering last Christmas, Angel was able to collect 12 monetary bills consisting of
P20 bills and P50 bills from her Titos and Titas. She received a total of P390 from them. How many of each
bill did Angel receive?

Solution:

i. Understand the Problem

Distribute 12 bills into two portions.

ii. Devise a Plan

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Perform trial and error. There are only 11 ways of splitting 12 into two portions: 11 + 1, 10 + 2, 9 + 3,
and so on. If there are 11 P20 bills, then there must be one P50 bills, in which case the total amount
is 11(20) + 1(50) = 270 pesos. Reversing the amounts, you have 11(50) + 1(20) = 570 pesos. Determine
which distribution of bills yields the amount P390.

iii. Carry Out the Plan

Number of P20 bills Number of P50 bills Total amount

11 1 11(20) + 1(50) = 270
10 2 10(20) + 2(50) = 300
9 3 9(20) + 3(50) = 330
8 4 8(20) + 4(50) = 360
7 5 7(20) + 5(50) = 390

The answer is seven P20 bills and five P50 bills.

iv. Look Back

The answer is reasonable as it generates the desired amount of P390. To check if this is the only
solution, complete the table.

Number of P20 bills Number of P50 bills Total amount

11 1 11(20) + 1(50) = 270
10 2 10(20) + 2(50) = 300
9 3 9(20) + 3(50) = 330
8 4 8(20) + 4(50) = 360
7 5 7(20) + 5(50) = 390
6 6 420
5 7 450

Number of P20 bills Number of P50 bills Total amount

4 8 480
3 9 510
2 10 540
1 11 570

A classic alternative is the algebraic process where variables are introduced in the solution.

 Devise a plan
Let x be the number of P20 bills and y, the number of P50 bills. Since there are 12 paper bills in all,
then
x  y  12

The amount of P20 bills is 20x while the amount of the P50 bills is 50y, giving the eqution

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20 x  50 y  390

Solve the system of equations in two unknown to find the answer.

 Carry out the plan

Equation (1) yields the explicit form y  12  x .

Using this in equation (2):

20 x  50 y  390
20 x  50(12  x)  390
20 x  600  50 x  390
 30 x  210
x7
And so, y  12  7  5
As in the first solution, the answer is seven P20 bills and five P50 bills.

 Look back

Check the total amount: 720  550  140  250  390

** Pattern Recognition as a Problem-Solving Strategy **

This section focuses on how to recognize both the evident and the hidden patterns that may arise in
observing few cases of a given problem.

One of the most effective ways to solve a problem is taking few numeric or geometric cases and observing if
there are repeated values or if such values exhibit certain behavior or pattern. Once the rule of the pattern is
captured, it would be easier to solve the specific problem.

Consider the first situation in the Diagnostic. For the first item, there are only two possible answers, either
TRUE or FALSE. A bit of complication occurs when you consider the first two questions. Enumerate the
possibilities as follows:

Item No. 1 Item No. 2

TRUE TRUE
TRUE FALSE
FALSE TRUE
FALSE FALSE

Thus, there are possible ways in all.

In the case of having three questions, look at the following possibilities.

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Item No. 1 Item No. 2 Item No.3

TRUE TRUE TRUE
TRUE TRUE FALSE
TRUE FALSE TRUE
TRUE FALSE FALSE
FALSE TRUE TRUE
FALSE TRUE FALSE
FALSE FALSE TRUE
FALSE FALSE FALSE

This accounts for eight possible ways of answering the three questions. It is left to the reader to verify
(you may also enumerate) that there are 16 possible ways of answering the first four questions.

Summarizing the results, you have the following table.

Number of questions Number of ways to

answer.
1 2
2 4
3 8
4 16 (?)

It must be evident that the number of ways is always a power of 2.

Number of questions Number of ways to
answer.
1 2 = 21
2 4 = 22
3 8 = 23
4 16 =24

So, it appears that for n questions in the test, there are exactly 2n ways of answering them. Specifically,
if there are 10 questions, then there must be 210 = 1024 ways.

The second problem in the Diagnostic is deceiving simple. For only two individuals, there is only
handshake that takes place since P1 to P2 is the same as P2 to P1. For three individuals (P1, P2, P3), the
distinct handshakes are: P1 to P2,P1 to P3, and P2 to P3 (for a total of three handshakes).

For four individuals (P1, P2, P3, P4), you have the following distinct handshakes: P1 to P2, P1 to P3,
P1 to P4, P2 to P3, P2 to P4, P3 to P4 (for a total of six handshakes). Summarizing the results:

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Number of individuals Number of handshakes

2 1
3 3
4 6
5 ?

There seems to be a pattern on the number of handshakes.

Number of individuals Number of handshakes Increment

2 1
3 3 2
4 6 3
5 10 4

Let us verify if there really are 10 handshakes among 5 people (P1, P2, P3, P4, P5):

(1) P1 to P2; (2) P1 to P3; (3) P1 to P4; (4) P1 to P5; (5) P2 to P3; (6) P2 to P4; (7) P2 to P5; (8) P3 to P4; (9)
P3 to P5; (10) P4 to P5.

So, as it appears, the number of handshakes is just incremented successively by the natural numbers.
Summarize this in the following table values.

Number of individuals Number of handshakes

2 1=1
3 3=1+2
4 6=1+2+3
5 10 = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4
… …
n 1 + 2 + 3 + … + (n – 1)

If you observe the number of handshakes, you will noticed the following:

11  1
1
2
22  1
1 2  3 
2
33  1
1 2  3  6 
2
44  1
1  2  3  4  10 
2
So, the pattern of the sums is also evident. Get the half of the product of the last number multiplied by the
(supposed to be) next number in the sum. Thus, if there are n people in the said gathering, the total number of
handshakes is

nn  1
1  2  3  4  ...  n  1 
2

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Test yourself:

Solve the problem using Polya’s four –step problem-solving strategy

In the complex number system, i1  i ; i 2  1 ; i 3  i ; i 4  1 , i 5  i ,… Find i173

V. REFERENCES: Mathematics in the World book from Richard T. Earnhart/Edgar M. Adina

http://www.slideshare.net>joeyvaldriz>mathematical-logic
https://youtu.be/ngUotonNTNY

VI. ASSESSMENT
TASK:
CHALLENGE YOURSELF

Answer the following.

1. Identify what type of reasoning is applied in the following arguments. Write Inductive and Deductive.
A. I have to review only the topics that Mr. Cruz discussed in class. My friends who had been in his class said
he never gave a test on topics that he never discussed in class.
B. Why is Aling Vicky so forgetful? The only reason that I can think of is that she not getting enough sleep
lately. Lack of sleep makes a person forgetful.
C. Don will make a good president. After all, he did great as a mayor.
D. The heat outdoors must have triggered my blood pressure to go up. Why not? I had it all normal while I
was indoors with the air conditioning on.
2. Four young children are seated next to each other on a bench. The child on the left cannot be older than
the child on the right. The ages of the 1st and 3rd children differ by 8 years. No child is below 2 years old,
neither any of them is older than 10 years old. The 2nd child is 7 years younger than the 4th child. What are
the ages of the four children?
3. The reciprocal of 7 is a repeating, non-terminating decimal. What is the 12th digit in the decimal form of
the reciprocal of 7?
4. How many times does the number 5 appear if you write all numbers from 1 to 200?
5. Each letter represents one of the digits 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9. The leading digits are non-zero digits.
What digit is represented by each letter?

VI. Assignment task

Watch the video-clip and complete the statements that follow.
Using the Scientific Method in everyday Life
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyJjisgjoeg

1. Three things that I significantly learned from the video clip.

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______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
2. Three questions that I want to ask about the video clip.
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________

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