Name ____________________________________ Pd.

______

Due Monday, October 15

Problem of the Week /20

Auto Sale
Andre’s Blue Ribbon Cars & Trucks is having a big sale. Mike and Don are setting up the lot. The boss
gives them a diagram of the lot and these directions: “Put the 4-door car in front of the van. Put the jeep between
the truck and the van. Put the sportscar to the left of the 2-door and 4-door cars.”

How did Mike and Don set up the lot?

**** Hint: Acting out or using objects will help you solve this problem. ****

I. RESTATE
There is a car sale at Andre’s Blue Ribbon Cars & Trucks. Mike and Don are setting up the parking lot and
were given very specific instructions on how to set up the lot. There are total of six cars, all different styles.
They all have a very specific position in the lot.

II. PLAN
This problem is going to take a lot of brainstorming, I feel that there isn’t going to be computations involved
such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, simply because all I need to do is place these vehicles
in their right places. The strategy I would like to try is “Using Objects” because it will give me a chance to play
around with the positions of the vehicles. To be able to see my work change visually will be helpful in this
situation, since it has to do with the positioning of objects. I will have small pieces of paper with the six
vehicles and play around with the positions in a lot.

III. PROCESS
Front Front
4-door car

Left Right Left Right

truck jeep van
van

Back Back

Direction #1: “4-door car in front of van” Direction #2: jeep between truck and van”

Front

sportscar 2-door 4-door

Left car car Right

Back

Direction #3: “sportscar to the left of the 2-door and 4-door car”

(Use the back side of the paper if needed, as long as you label all the sections and be very neat.)
IV. DATA DISPLAY
Front

sportscar 2-door car 4-door car

Left Right
truck jeep van

Back

V. SUMMARY
After brainstorming a bit and deciding on playing around with the different pieces of paper, I started piecing
them together using the instructions. Since there are words like “in front” and “left,” it made sense to write
out the words “front,” “back,” “left,” and “right.” The problem clearly has something to do with directions, so it’s
important that I solve the problem using directions. As shown in the PROCESS section, I first put the 4-door
car in front of the van. Then since it says that the truck and the jeep is to the left of the van, and the 4-
door car is already in front of the van, then it must look something like this:

Front

4-door car

Left Right
truck jeep van

Back

Then the directions said that the sportscar is to the left of the 2-door and 4-door car. It could look like:

Front

sportscar 2-door car 4-door car

Left Right

Back

or it could look like:

Front

sportscar 4-door car 2-door car

Left Right

Back
However, if I put the 4-door car in between the 2-door car and sportscar, then the lot would look like this:

Front

sportscar 4-door car 2-door car

Left Right
truck jeep van

Back

It’s rare that car store managers will position six vehicles lop-sided so that one vehicle is sticking out on
either end. This is why I decided finally that it makes more sense to put the 2-door car in between the
sportscar and the 4-door car, so the lot is evenly placed, with two rows of vehicles and three vehicles in
each row.

Though I didn’t encounter that many difficulties, it took a while for me to decide whether to put the 2-door
or 4-door car in the middle in the front row. But in the end, it made more sense to make the lot a neat six
space one than ones with vehicles sticking out in different directions and rows.

I learned that there are different ways to solve a problem, even though not all of it requires computations
like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. But to every problem, critical thinking is involved in order
to solve it. I also learned that as a problem solver, I like to take my time to think and work. I wasn’t able to
finish the whole problem in one sitting. I spaced it out so I worked 30 minutes at a time.