PROBLEM SET

■ Use Polya’s four-step problem-solving strategy and the problem-solving

procedures to solve each of the following exercises.

1. Number of Girls: There are 364 first-grade students in Park Elementary School.
If there are 26 more girls than boys, how many girls are there?

2. Heights of Ladders: If two ladders are placed end to end, their combined height
is 31.5 feet. One ladder is 6.5 feet shorter than the other ladder. What are the
heights of the two ladders?

3. Cost of a Shirt: A shirt and a tie together cost P500. The shirt costs P100 more
than the tie. What is the cost of the shirt?

4. Number of Games: In a basketball league consisting of 12 teams, each team

plays each of the other teams exactly twice. How many league games will be played?

5. A Puzzle: A frog is at the bottom of a 17-foot well. Each time the frog leaps, it
moves up 3 feet. If the frog has not reached the top of the well, then the frog slides
back 1 foot before it is ready to make another leap. How many leaps will the frog
need to escape the well?

6. Number of Handshakes: If eight people greet each other at a meeting by shaking

hands with one another, how many handshakes take place?

7. Number of Line Segments: Twenty-four points are placed around a circle. A line
segment is drawn between each pair of points. How many line segments are drawn?

8. Number of Ducks and Pigs: The number of ducks and pigs in a field totals 35.
The total number of legs among them is 98. Assuming each duck has exactly two legs
and each pig has exactly four legs, determine how many ducks and how many pigs
are in the field.