Problem Solving

and Reasoning
CHAPTER 3
 Use Different Types of Reasoning
to justify statements and
arguments made about
mathematics and its concept
OBJECTIVES Solve problems involving Patterns
Part I and recreational problems
following Polya’s for step
Organize Methods and
approaches for proving problems
 MATHEMATICS IS
NOT JUST ABOUT
CORE NUMBERS, MUCH OF
IDEA IT IS PROBLEM
SOLVING AND
REASONING.
 PREDICT THE NEXT
NUMBER IN EACH OF
ANALYSIS THE FOLLOWING LIST
No. 1 3,6,9,12,15,_
1,3,6,10,15,_
2,5,10,17,26,_
 INDUCTIVE DEDUCTIVE
 IT IS THE PROCESS  IT IS THE PROCESS
OF REACHING A OF REACHING A
GENERAL CONCLUSION BY
CONCLUSION BY APPLYING GENERAL
EXAMINING SPECIFIC ASSUMPTIONS,
REASONIN EXAMPLES
(PREMISES)
PROCEDURES OR
PRINCIPLES
G  IS DRAWING A  STARTS WITH A
GENERAL GENERAL
CONCLUSION FROM STATEMENT (OR
A REPEATED HYPOTHESIS) AND
OBSERVATION OR EXAMINES TO REACH
LIMITED SETS OF A SPECIFIC
OBSERVATIONS OF CONCLUSION.
SPECIFIC EXAMPLES.
 The Conclusion formed by using
inductive reasoning is a
conjecture.
A statement is a true statement
NOTE provided that it is true in all cases.
If there is one case for which a
statement is not true, called
counterexample, then the
statement is false.
 IDENTIFY if the following statement are
INDUCTIVE and DEDUCTIVE Reasoning.
1. During the past 10 years, a tree has
produced plums every one year. Last
ANALYSIS year the tree does not produce plums, so
no.2 this year the tree will produce plums.
2. If a figure is a rectangle, then it is a
parallelogram. Figure A is a rectangle.
Therefore, Figure A is a parallelogram.
 3. I know I will win a jackpot on this slot
machine in the next 10 tries, because it
has not paid out any money during the
last 45 tries.
4. Samantha got A on each of her four math
ANALYSIS test, so she will get A on the next math
test.
no.2 cont.
5. All home improvement cost more than
the estimate. The contractor estimated
that my home improvement will cost
35,000. thus my home improvement will
cost more than 35,000.
 INDUCTIVE DEDUCTIVE
 EXAMINE a LIST
OF NUMBERS MAKE
AND PREDICT CONJECTURE
USES THE NEXT. SOLVE LOGIC
 MAKE PUZZLE WITH
CONJECTURE THE AID OF
 SOLVE CHART.
APPLICATION
  Complete the procedure below for several
different numbers. Use inductive reasoning to
make a conjecture about the relationship
between the size of the resulting number and
the size of the original number.
ANALYSIS Procedure:
no.3  Pick a number
 Multiple by 8
 Add 6
 Divide by 2
 Subtract 3
 Scientist often use inductive
reasoning, Galileo Galilei used
inductive reasoning to discover that
Analysis the time required for a pendulum to
complete one swing depends on the
No.4 length of the pendulum. Galileo does
not have clock, so he measured the
periods of the pendulum in
heartbeats (10 inches=1 unit)
 Length of Period of the
a.If a pendulum has a the pendulum in
pendulum, in heartbeats
length of 49 units, units
what is its period?
b.If the length of a 1 1
pendulum is 4 2
quadrupled, what 9 3
happens to the 16 4
period? 25 5
 A Statement is True
ple Statement provided that it is
am
true in all cases and it only
takes one example to prove
ex

the conjecture is false.

ter
un
Co
 Verify that each of the following
statements is false statement by
finding a COUNTEREXAMPLE.
For all number x:
Analysis show

no.5 show

show

show
 a) Let x = 0. then |0| = 0.
Analysis Because 0 is not greater
than 0 we have found a
no.5 counterexample. Thus
answer “for all numbers x, |x|> 0”
is a false statement.
back
 b) For x = 1 we have 12 = 1.
Analysis since is not greater than 1,
we have found a
no.5 counterexample. Thus
answer “for all numbers x, x2 > x”
is a false statement.
back
 c) For x = -1 the result is 1,
since this in not equal to
Analysis -1, we have found a
no.5 counterexample. Thus
answer “for all numbers x,
x = x” is a false
2

statement.
back
 d) For x = 0 the result is
Analysis indeterminate that is not
equal to 1, so this is a
no.5 counterexample. Thus
answer “for all numbers x, x/x = 1”
is a false statement.
back
 Use deductive reasoning to show that
the following produces a number that
is four times the original number.

Procedure:
Analysis No.6
Pick a number
Multiply by 8
Add 6
Divide by 2
Subtract 3
  Each of four neighbors, Sean, Maria, Sarah and
Brian has different occupation ( editor, banker,
chef or dentist) from the following clues,
determine the occupation of each neighbor
a. Maria gets home from work after the banker
Analysis but before the dentist
b. Sarah, who is the last to get home from work,
No.7 is not the editor.
c. The dentist and Sarah leave for work at the
same time
d. The banker lives next door to Brian.
 Editor Banker Chef Dentist

Sean

Maria

Sarah

Brian
 a. Maria gets home from work after the banker
but before the dentist
Editor Banker Chef Dentist

Analysis Sean

No.7 Maria Xa Xa
Answer Sarah

Brian
 a. Maria gets home from work after the banker
but before the dentist
b. Sarah, who is the last to get home from work,
is not the editor.
Editor Banker Chef Dentist

Analysis
No.7 Sean

Answer Maria Xa Xa

Sarah Xb Xa

Brian
 c. The dentist and Sarah leave for work at the
same time

Editor Banker Chef Dentist

Analysis
No.7 Sean

Answer Maria Xa Xa

Sarah Xb Xa Xc

Brian
 d. The banker lives next door to Brian.

Editor Banker Chef Dentist

Analysis
No.7 Sean

Answer Maria Xa Xa

Sarah Xb Xa Xc

Brian Xd
 d. The banker lives next door to Brian.

Editor Banker Chef Dentist

Analysis
No.7 Sean

Answer Maria Xa Xa

Sarah Xb Xa Xc

Brian Xd
 Editor Banker Chef Dentist


Analysis
Sean X  X X

No.7 Maria
 Xa X

Xa
Answer Sarah Xb Xa  Xc

Brian Xd
X X 
Problem › Different Recreational
Solving Activities involving
and Problem Solving
Reasoning › Apply Polya’s Four Step
Objectives Problem Solving
Part II Strategy
 › It is an arithmetic-based puzzle that
was invented by the Japanese
Mathematics Teacher Tetsuya
RECREATIONAL Miyamoto in 2004.
ACTIVITY: › The noun “Ken” has “knowledge” and
KENKEN Puzzle “awareness” as synonyms which
translates as knowledge squared, or
awareness squared.
RULES
› Do not repeat a number in
a row or column.
› The no. is outlined set of
square called cages, must
combined to produce the
target number.
› No number can be
repeated within a cage as
long as it is not in the
same row or column.
Solving
KenKen
Puzzle
ACTIVITY 1
 An ordered list of number such as ..

5, 14, 27, 44, 65..

Recreational Is called a sequences. The number in a
Activity: sequence separated by the commas are the
Term of term of the sequences.

Sequences
When We examine a sequence, it is natural to
ask:
• What is the next term?
• What formula or rule can be used to generate
the term?
Constructing a Difference Table
ACTIVITY 2

Construct a Difference Table to satisfy the

following set of numbers. Then determine
the next number.
Note:
“To Become a Good Problem
Solver, It helps to examine each
steps and determine what is
involved.”
Introduction
 › Can you restate the problem in
your own words?
Understand › Can you determine what is
known about these type of
the
problems?
problem
› Is there a missing information?
› Is there extraneous
information?
› What is your goal?
 Draw a diagram
Make a list of Information
that are needed
Devise a
Plan
Work backwards
Look for a pattern
Guess at the solution and
then check your results
 Work carefully
Keep an accurate and neat
record of all your attempts
Carry out a
Plan Realize that some of your
initial plans will not work
and you have to devise
another plan
 Ensure that the solution is
consistent with the facts of
Review the the problems
solution Interpret the solution
Make a generalization of
the solution
 Problem Solving Strategies
Example 1: Suppose the NCAA basketball championships is decided
on a best of five series game. In how many diff. ways can a
team win the championships?

Solution:
Step 1: Understand the Problem.

Many different orders to win the championships.

Team may have won WWW or LLWWW.

Step 2: Devise a Plan.

Make an organized list of all possible orders and ensure that each of the
different orders is accounted for only once.

Copyright 2018: Mathematics in the Modern World by Winston S. Sirug, Ph.D.

 Problem Solving Strategies

Step 3: Carry Out the Plan.

Each entry in the list must contain three Ws and may contain one or two
losses.
WWW (Start with three wins)
WWLW (Start with two wins)
WWLLW (Start with two wins)
WLWW (Start with one win)
WLLWW (Start with one win)
WLWLW (Start with one win)
LWWW (Start with one loss)
LWWLW (Start with one loss)
LWLWW (Start with one loss)
LLWWW (Start with two losses)

Copyright 2018: Mathematics in the Modern World by Winston S. Sirug, Ph.D.

 Problem Solving Strategies
Step 4: Look Back.
Check if the the list contains no duplications.
Includes all possibilities.
Conclude that there are ten (10) different ways in to win the NCAA
championships in the best of 5 games.

Copyright 2018: Mathematics in the Modern World by Winston S. Sirug, Ph.D.

 › In a basketball league
consisting of 10 teams,
each plays each teams
Example of the other teams
exactly three times. How
many league games will
be played ?
  There are 10 teams in the
league, and each team
plays exactly three games
Understand
the against each of the other
problem teams. The problem is to
determine the total
number of league games
that will be played.
  Work with similar but
simple problem, say a
league with only four
Devise a teams, A, B, C, and D, in
plan which each team plays
each of the other teams
only once. See illustration
on the next slide.
 A B

Devise a
plan
continue D
 Representing the line segments as the number of
games. Since each of the four teams will play a game
against each of the other three, we might conclude that
this is would result to 43=12 games, but the diagram
tell us that there were only 6 games, so we need to
divide the result by 2, thus (43)/2=6 games
  Using the same process,
there will (10  9)/2=45
games. Since each team
Carry out need to play each
the plan opponent exactly three
times so the total
number of games will be
453=135 games.
  We could used a list of games considering each
team are A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I and J. The will
be
AB, AC, AD, AE, AF, AG, AH, AI, AJ = 9
BC, BD, BE, BF, BG, BH, BI, BJ =8
CD, CE, CF, CG, CH, CI, CJ =7
Review the DE, DF, DG, DH, DI, DJ = 6
solution EF, EG, EH, EI, EJ =5
FG, FH, FI, FJ =4
GH, GI, GJ = 3
HI, HJ =2
IJ =1
45