Problem Solving

By: Rachelle Wallace

Texas Essential Knowledge and

Skills
(b)Knowledge and skills.
(1)Mathematical process standards. The student
uses mathematical processes to acquire and
demonstrate mathematical understanding. The
student is expected to:
(A)apply mathematics to problems arising in everyday
life, society, and the workplace;
(B)use a problem-solving model that incorporates
analyzing given information, formulating a plan or
strategy, determining a solution, justifying the solution,
and evaluating the problem-solving process and the
reasonableness of the solution;

Solve
A rubber ball rebounds to half the height it drops.
If the ball is dropped from a rooftop 18m above
the ground, what is the total distance traveled by
the time it hits the ground the third time?

A. 31.5 m
B. 40.5 m
C. 45 m
D. 63m

Lets Begin!
First lets figure out what we
know.
We know that the ball is
dropped from 18 meters,
and we know that the ball
rebounds half of the 18
meters.
So what is half of 18?
18 divided by 2 equals 9.

Third times a charm!

The ball bounces up to 9 meters, and then it hits the ground a
second time.
Next we need to figure out the distance of the second rebound.
We can solve that by dividing 9 by 2, which equals 4.5.
The class will draw a picture here to help them to see the equation
more clearly.

Put your thinking caps on!

The ball ends up bouncing up to 4.5 meters
before it hits the ground for a third time.
To completely solve the question, we need to
add up all of the different distances that the
ball traveled in all.

We can go the distance.

In all we should have 5 different distances:
18 meters from where the ball fell originally.
9 meters for the first rebound
9 meters again for the ball to fall back down to
the ground
4.5 meters for the second rebound
4.5 meter again for the ball to fall back down
to the ground

Lets add
Now we are ready to solve the problem,
which is adding all of the distances together.
18+9+9+4.5+4.5=45

You did it!

The ball should have traveled a total
distance of 45 meters, the answer is letter C!