POLYAS MODEL

FIRST STRATEGY

QUESTION 1
Africa is known for its beautiful animals. A group of birds called red-shouldered vangas and African tigers roam on the plain of Kenya in Africa. Nine animals are roaming in one area. There is a total of 26 legs. How many two legged birds are there? How many tigers?

Understand the problem

There are 26 legs in all, birds have two legs, tigers have 4, there are 9 animals total How many birds and how many tigers there are?

Devise a plan
Guess the number of birds and tiger Try your numbers out Revise your guesses if you need to Record your work

Carry Out The Plan

Try two numbers to see how close to 26 you can get Guess : 4 birds ; 3 tigers 4 x 2 = 8 ; 3 x 4 = 12 8 + 12 = 20 Check : 20 < 26 Try larger numbers

Guess : 5 birds ; 4 tigers

5 x 2 = 10 ; 4 x 4 = 16 10 + 16 = 26
Check : 26 legs is correct

Therefore there are 5 birds and 4 tigers. The total number of animals is 9.

Look back
Birds ( legs) Tigers ( legs) The total of legs

2 2 2
2 2 Total

4 4 4
4 -

6 6 6
6 2 26

So,we know that there are 5 birds and four tigers

Second Strategy

Understand The Problem

There are 26 legs in all, birds have two legs, tigers have 4, there are 9 animals total How many birds and how many lions there are?

Devise A Plan
We use an equation as the strategy.

Assume x for birds and y for tigers.

Carry Out The Plan

Birds : x Tigers : y Legs : Animals : Therefore 2x 4y 2x + 4y = 26 x + y = 9 x = 9 - y 2 (9 - y) + 4y = 26 18 - 2y + 4y = 26 2y y = 8 = 4

(i)

If y = 4 , x = 9 - 4 = 5 So , there have 5 birds and 4 tigers.

Look Back
2x + 4y = 26 2 (5) + 4 (4) =26

So, from the equation ,we can prove that the answer is correct.