SEMI-DETAILED LESSON PLAN

I. OBJECTIVES
At the end of the lesson, the pupils are expected to:
 Solve Problems by looking for symmetry

II. SUBJECT MATTER

Topic: Look for symmetry
Reference:
https://uncmathcontest.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/problemsolving.pdf
Materials: PowerPoint presentation, manila paper and masking tape.

III. PROCEDURES
A. Routine Activities
a. Prayer
b. Greetings
c. Checking of Attendance
B. Lesson proper.
A. Lesson Review
 The teacher will ask about the last lesson.

B. Motivation
 Throw Me a Dance Mirror!

Mechanics: The class with for two groups and stand in line at two different
sides of the classroom forming parallel lines pairing one student from
group 1 with another student from group 2. A student first pair will then
have thrown a ball to the other students, if the ball is caught then proceed
to the next pair if the ball is not caught then proceed to the dance activity.
After doing so can continue on the ball throwing until 5 dances are
finished. If the ball reaches the last pair it will repeat with the first pair.

Dance activity: the teacher will show a short dance video and the students
will have to mirror the dance in front of the class.
C. Activity
 Group the class in two and proceed with the activity

Group 1 Activity:

Given the figure on the right suppose the

side of the bigger square is 1 what is the area
of the smaller square?

1. Draw the diagonals of the inner square

If you were to fold the figure along the diagonals what can you
observe?
What does this mean for the figure?

2. Rotate the inner square so that its vertices is inscribe to the sides of the
outer square.
What do you notice of the figure?
Do you think its still the same figure?

3. Count the number of triangles formed inside the larger square. Now
count the number of triangles inside the smaller square.
What is the relationship between the two number of triangles?
What can you conclude from this?

4. Using the ratio solve for the area of the smaller square.
What is the area?

Group 2 Activity:
A ship must travel from point 𝐴 = (0, 3) to a point 𝐶 = (8, 5) touching the
𝑥-axis first. At what point 𝐵 = (𝑘, 0) should the ship touch so that the
total distance from 𝐴 to 𝐵 to 𝐶 is minimized?
1. Plot the points in the Cartesian plane.
Were you able to plot all the point? How do you think we
should plot point B?
If assuming point be do not have to be at the x-axis, how do
you think the points should connect for the shortest
distance?
Do you think there is a way to connect the points in a
straight line by passing through the x-axis?
 2. Fold the graph along the x-axis.
What do you notice of the new placement of the points?
Is it symmetrical to point C?

3. Draw and label the new point symmetrical of C as C’.

What have you noticed about the coordinates of point C
and point C’?

4. Draw a line connecting point A and point C’.

What have you noticed?
Did the line pass through x-axis?
What do you think this means?

5. Draw and label the point where the line passes through the x-axis.
And draw a line connecting this point to point C
What have you noticed?
Have you found point B?
What should be the value of k of point B=(k,0)?

D. Analysis

What have you noticed from our activity?

What do you think is our topic?

The LOOK FOR SYMMETRY strategy in problem solving allows you to

simplify a problem by using the symmetric properties of figures or equations.
You might ask yourself the question what kinds of symmetry does this figure
display? If I used symmetry, what portion of the figure would I need to attend
to and what information about it would I need?

Lets look at this example.

A square has an area of 16 in². Two circles are drawn

that overlap the square as shown. The vertices B and D
of the square lie on the circumference of the circle and
the vertices A and C are the centers of the circles. What
is the area of the lemon shape region?

Since the area of the square is 16 in² that means the side is 4 in. Which
means that the radius of both circles A and C are 4 in.

Notice that the figure is symmetrical that mean we can easily solve this by
solving only one circle segment.
 Remember that each circular segment is formed by a sector of the circle
minus the triangular portion inside it.

Notice that the diagonals DB of

the square is the chord that
subtends the quarter circle sector
therefore we know that the sector
angle is 90°

Using the formula for Area of a sector and formula for the Area of a
triangle.
θ
Asector = ( π r 2) = 90 ° ( π 42 ) = 4π
360° 360°
1 1
A∆ = b h= ( 4 ) (4)=8
2 2
The area of the circle segment is then, Asector – A∆ = 4π – 8. And since this
only one side of the lemon shaped region we have multiple this by 2 to
get, 2(4π -8) = 8π – 16 ≈ 25.13 – 16 ≈ 9.13 in²
Therefore, the area of the lemon shaped region is approximately 9.13 in²
Notice that this problem became much easier due to looking for symmetry.

Let’s have another example.

How many four-digit palindromic numbers abba are there?

Notice that abba is symmetrical in a way that abba = abba is reflective to

each other, and that ab | ba mirrors each other.
Because of this symmetry we can actually easily solve this using the
permutation of the two which is ab. However, because it needs to be a 4
digit number a ≠ 0 because that will make the number a three digits with 0
at the front.
So in this case a = (any number between 1-9) and b = (any number 0-9)
counting the number of possible outcomes a = 9 and b = 10. As such;
ab = (9)(10) = 90
Therefore, there are 90 different four-digit palindromic numbers.

E. Abstraction
So based on all our examples, how should we apply looking for symmetry
in problem solving?
 To apply looking for symmetry in problem solving we must first
(1) identify if the problem has symmetry, (2) transform the
problem using symmetry, (3) solve for the problem by applying
symmetry.
How does looking for symmetry simplify the process of problem solving?
Why do you think is it important to understand problem solving by looking
for symmetry?

F. Application

Directions: Solve the following.

1. An equilateral triangle is inscribed in a circle. A smaller circle is drawn

inside the triangle, touching all three sides. If the large circle has a
radius of 6 cm, what is the radius of the smaller circle?

2. A digital clock displays a 4-digit time (e.g., 12:34). How many times
in a 12-hour period does the time appear as a palindrome (e.g., 12:21,
03:30)?

IV. Evaluation

Directions: In a 1 whole sheet of paper solve the following using looking for symmetry
.
1) A license plate consists of 3 letters followed by 3 digits. If the letters are chosen
from {A, H, I, M, O, T, U, V, W, X, Y} (which look the same in a mirror) and the
digits are chosen from {0, 1, 8}, how many symmetric license plates can be
made?

2) A four-digit number is cyclic if rotating its digits (e.g., 1234 → 2341 → 3412 →
4123) always results in another valid four-digit number. How many such numbers
exist?

3) Find the length of the shortest path from the point (3,5) to the point (8,2) that
touches the y-axis.

V. Assignment

Directions: Solve the problem using looking for symmetry.

 Recall that the parabola is defined to be the locus of all points in the plane, such
that the distance to a fixed point (the focus) is equal to the distance to a fixed line
(the directrix). Prove the reflection property of the parabola: if a beam of light,
traveling perpendicular to the directrix, strikes any point on the concave side of a
parabolic mirror, the beam will reflect off the mirror and travel straight to the
focus.

Prepared by: AJ Prince S. Damondamon & Niel M. Esmolo