Rebeca Barba

MAT 143
Problem Write-Up
The Locker Problem
Problem Statement:
There are 1000 lockers numbered 1-1000. You walk past the lockers and open every
locker that is a multiple of 2. You go back to the beginning and walk through the
lockers again. At every locker that is a multiple of 3, you open it if it is closed or you
close it if it is opened. You go to the beginning and do the same for every multiple
up to 1000. When you are finished, which lockers are opened and which are closed?
Why?

Strategy:
At first, I looked at the problem and tried to picture it in my head. I thought it was
too much to write out all of the lockers up to 1000, but it was too confusing trying to
imagine it. I decided to draw it out, but I only went up to 50. Since 1000 was too
much to draw, I hoped I would be able to figure it out by going up to 50. I wrote all
the numbers vertically and began going multiple by multiple. Every time a locker
was opened, I would put an O. If I had to close it, I would put a slash on the O. If I
had to open it again, I would put another O next to it. This way I could see exactly
what was happening with every multiple. Once I finished with the 50, I was able to
find a pattern. I found that the numbers that had whole square roots ended up
closed. All the other lockers were opened.

Solution:
1.
2. O
3. O
4.
5. O
6.
7. O
8.
9.
10.
11.O
12.
13.O
14.
15.
16.
17.O
18.
19.O
20.
21.
22.
23.O
24.
25.

O
O
O
O
O
O

O
O
O
O
O

26.
27.
28.
29.O
30.
31.O
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.O
38.
39.
40.
41.O
42.
43.O
44.
45.
46.
47.O
48.
49.
50.

O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O

O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O

All of the highlighted lockers are the ones that ended up closed. These were all
square roots. The reason is that square roots have an odd amount of factors, since
one of the factors is multiplied to itself. In this problem, we start with 2 so we can
eliminate the factor of 1. Now, there is an even amount of factors for every square
root that is used in this problem. This means that for every time the locker of a
square root is opened, it has to be closed because it is even. The rest of the
numbers will have an odd amount of factors, not including 1. They will end up

opened because for every time it is opened, it has to be closed and opened again
since it is odd.
Reflection:
This problem was very challenging for me. It was one of the first problems that I
read and did not even want to attempt it because it seemed so difficult. When I
finally decided that I was going to draw it out, it was a lot simpler than I thought. It
was very time consuming but I was able to see the pattern when I was getting
towards the end of the 50 lockers. Once I finished, I found the answer but I was still
having trouble with the explanation. I wanted the answer to be in front of me
because I had already done so much work, but I still had to do more to figure out
what was the explanation for the pattern. I do not usually struggle this much with
finding a solution. I really liked it because I was challenged by it.