POW 1.26-2.

2
Marley Gabel
Problem:
There are a group of 6 friends at a Christmas party. They all want to sit together for the
white elephant gift exchange. They cannot sit more than 2 meters away from each other.
How many guests can we seat 2 meters or more apart?
Process:
For this problem of the week, we discussed it for a while as an entire class. Kyle introduced
it to us through the use of a unit circle where the radius was 2 units, in my example, 2
meters. Then we added a second circle with the radius 2 meters to show where people
could sit.

Kyle explained to us that if we did it this way, we would place a point between the two
circles. Then, we would have to draw a new circle with the center at the new point and then
place the following points in the space that both circles overlapped. This would be
essentially like building a large array of Venn diagrams.
We also discussed the amount of pairs we would get if we just placed three dots on one side
and three on the other side, like below.

So if we look at this diagram, we can imagine that it is just two points and the other points
are stacked against the original two. If we make the shortest line 2 and make sure that the
longest diagonal lines are less than 2, we can count 9 connection points. This gives us a base
to build upon. We know that there is a maximum of 15 pairs because: 6C2=15(6*5)/(2*1).
With this, we can limit our answers in between 9 and 15, inclusive.
Instead of using the circle method, I decided to start looking at this problem through a
square, similar to my peer, Derek Panzse.

I started with a square and placed my points on the corners. Then I made the parallel lines
2 apart. Using the Pythagorean Theorem, I know that the diagonal in the square would be 2
((2^2 )+(2^2 )=4=2). This means that the points diagonal from each other can be
counted as a pair as well. I also can add points to the square next to the corner points which
would qualify as pairs.
Derek and I approached the square method in the same way by adding points close to the
corners. By adding the lines between the points, we counted 11 pairs. This is more than 9, so
we now know that our maximum has to be between 11 and 15, inclusive.
While Derek and I were constructing our squares with four framing lines, Michaelan placed
his lines in a different shape. Michaelan used a triangle, with three framing lines. Michaelan
made the distance between the outside points 2 units apart. The points that he added on the
sides are placed 2 (or more) apart from the corner points. This way, we can use the three
pairs on the outside as well as the three pairs made by the inside triangle. The next six pairs
are formed by the outside corners and the inner triangle points. (I have just added the
internal lines because the outside lines will not be visible on the black framing of the
triangle.)

Using the triangle method, Michaelan found 12 possible pairs that are 2 or more units
apart. This is one more than the 11 pairs found in the square method and three more pairs
than we found with the straight line method.
Solution:
The solution is all of the guests sitting in a triangle, as pictured below. In the triangle, there
are 12 twelve pairs between the guests which is the maximum amount possible that allows
when guests to be 2 meters or more apart.

Justification:
After working with several different models trying to find the most pairs possible, I know
that the answer is a triangular shape which will yield the most pairs. I know that this is the
right answer because of the shapes that I was using. I started with just two points. Then, I
transitioned to use a square, which had four points. When Michaelan found that a shape with
three points yielded 12 pairs, I knew that the answer wasnt going to be found by making
shapes with more sides. My reasoning is simple. I started on both sides of a triangle (smaller
and bigger) and both of the results were less than what I found in a triangle. I envision the
pair amount as a parabola, so starts low, peaks, and then drops. Because the 12 pairs were
found in the shape between my first and second guesses and 12 was the most pairs found, I
know that the answer is within a triangle where there will be 12 pairs.