GEC 14

Mathematics in the Modern

World

The course introduces mathematics as an

exploration of patterns (in nature and in life
and as an application of logical reasoning. By
exploring these topics, the students are
encouraged/motivated to go beyond the
typical understanding of mathematics as a
set of formulas but as a reflection of
aesthetics in patterns of nature and life
which are governed by rational rules of logic
and reasoning.

The course then proceeds to survey ways in

which mathematics provides a tool for
understanding and dealing with various
aspects of life — managing personal
finances, making social choices/decisions,
appreciating geometric designs,
understanding and using codes in data
transmission and security, dividing limited
resources, or dealing with quantitatively-
referenced problems. These provide
opportunities for the actual application of
mathematics in a range of exercises as a way
of measuring and testing students’
understanding and capacity.

BUCS Mathematics Department

 GEC 14 | BUCS Mathematics Department

Problem Solving
Let's Try This!

Three people check into a hotel. The clerk tells them that the bill for their stay is Php3000, so
each person pays the clerk $Php1000$. The clerk puts the money in the cash register.

Later that night, the clerk realizes that he made a mistake and should have only charged the three
guests Php2500. He pulls Php500 in one hundred peso bills out of the register and tells the bell
boy to return the money to the guests.

On the way to the room, the bell boy realizes that he cannot split the money evenly among the
three people. As the guests don't know that they were charged the incorrect amount for their
room, the bell boy decides to simply give them Php100 each and pocket the extra Php200 as a tip.
Each guest gets Php100 back, so they each paid Php900 for their room, totaling Php2700. The bell
boy kept Php200, and Php2700 + Php200 = Php2900.

But the guests originally handed over Php3000. What happened to the missing Php100?

Steps in Problem Solving

In 1945, George Polya published a book How To Solve It which quickly became his most
prized publication. It sold over one million copies and has been translated into 17
languages. In this book he identifies four basic principles of problem solving.
Understand the problem.
Devise a plan (translate).
Carry out the plan (solve).
Look back (check and interpret)

[Cite your source here.]

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 GEC 14 | BUCS Mathematics Department

1. Understanding the Problem

 What is the unknown? What are the data? What is the condition?
 Is it possible to satisfy the condition? Is the condition sufficient to determine the
unknown? Or is it insufficient? Or redundant? Or contradictory?
 Draw a figure. Introduce suitable notation.
 Separate the various parts of the condition. Can you write them down?

2. Devising a Plan
 Find the connection between the data and the unknown. You may be obligated to
consider auxiliary problems if an immediate connection cannot be found. You should
obtain eventually a plan of the solution.
 Have you seen it before? Or have you seen the same problem in a slightly different form?
 Do you know a related problem? Do you know a theorem that could be useful?
 Look at the unknown! Try to think of a familiar problem having the same or a similar
unknown.
 Here is a problem related to yours and solved before. Could you use it? Could you use its
result? Could you use its method? Should you introduce some auxiliary element in order
to make its use possible?
 Could you restate the problem? Could you restate it still differently? Go back to
definitions.
 If you cannot solve the proposed problem, try to solve first some related problem. Could
you imagine a more accessible related problem? Could you solve a part of the problem?
Keep only a part of the condition, drop the other part; how far is the unknown then
determined, how can it vary?
 Could you derive something useful from the data? Could you think of other data
appropriate to determine the unknown? Could you change the unknown or data, or both
if necessary, so that the new unknown and the new data are nearer to each other?
 Did you use all the data? Did you use the whole condition? Have you taken into account
all essential notions involved in the problem?

3. Carrying Out the Plan

 Carry out your plan of the solution, check each step. Can you see clearly that the step is
correct? Can you prove that it is correct?

4. Looking Back
 Examine the solution obtained.
 Can you check the result? Can you check the argument?
 Can you derive the solution differently? Can you see it at a glance?
 Can you use the result, or the method, for some other problem?

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 GEC 14 | BUCS Mathematics Department

Strategies in Problem Solving

 Make a Table or an Organize List
 Draw a Diagram, Picture or a Model
 Guess and Check
 Logical Reasoning and Elimination
 Act out
 Find a Pattern
o Work Backward
o Simplify the Problem

Sample Problems
1. Lea, Riza, Brian and Trevor have different favorite colors among red, blue, green and
orange. No person's name contains the same number of letter as his or her favorite color.
Trevor and the boy who likes blue live in different parts of town. Red is the favorite color
of one of the girls. What is each person's favorite color?
2. Noah wants to make a soup. The recipe says he should use one liter of water, but he does
not have a one-liter container. Instead, he has a five-liter container and a three-liter
container. How can he use these two containers to measure one liter of water?
3. Maria celebrated her birthday party in a private home's poolside garden. It was attended
by 30 persons. If each person shook hands with each other exactly once, then how many
handshakes took place?
4. Mang Tomas owns goats and ducks. Counting heads there are 39. Counting the legs there
are 110. How many goats and how many ducks does Mang Tomas have?
5. During the BU Week Celebration, the Sports Club organized a Dart Competition. It was
announced that each dart that lands in a region of the target may score the following
points: 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10. Each competitor is allowed to throw five darts at the target.
Assuming that all darts landed on the region, which of the following total scores are not
possible: 6, 14, 17, 38, 42, 58
6. Miriam went to Legazpi City to shop. She went to the Ayala Mall, spent half of her money
and then Php500 more. Then, went to Gaisano Mall, spent half of the remaining money
and then Php500 more. She then had no money left, not even a pamasahe to go home.
How much money did she have to begin with when she went to the Ayala Mall?
7. Find the difference when the sum of the first 100 positive odd integers is subtracted from
the first 100 positive even integers.
8. Keith bought five pencils and pens at a total cost of $Php29$. A pencil costs Php4 and a
pen costs Php7. How many pens did Keith buy?

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 GEC 14 | BUCS Mathematics Department

Self-Assessment
On your free time, solve the problem below. Refrain from looking for the answer on the internet.
Solve this on your own. It is more fulfilling that way. Use the next page provided for your solution.

The Problem
Facts

 There are 5 houses in five different colors.

 In each house lives a person with a different nationality.
 These five owners drink a certain type of beverage, smoke a certain brand of cigar and
keep a certain pet.
 No owners have the same pet, smoke the same brand of cigar or drink the same beverage.

Hints

1. the Brit lives in the red house

2. the Swede keeps dogs as pets
3. the Dane drinks tea
4. the green house is on the left of the white house
5. the green house's owner drinks coffee
6. the person who smokes Pall Mall rears birds
7. the owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill
8. the man living in the center house drinks milk
9. the Norwegian lives in the first house
10. the man who smokes blends lives next to the one who keeps cats
11. the man who keeps horses lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill
12. the owner who smokes BlueMaster drinks beer
13. the German smokes Prince
14. the Norwegian lives next to the blue house
15. the man who smokes blend has a neighbor who drinks water

The question is: Who owns the fish?

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 GEC 14 | BUCS Mathematics Department

Mathematics in the Modern World

First Semester 2020 – 2021

SELF-ASSESSMENT REPORT
Name: Time Started:
Course: Time Ended:
Date Conducted: Total Time Consumed:

Trial 1

Nationality
Beverage
House Color
Brand of Cigar
Pet

Trial 2

Nationality
Beverage
House Color
Brand of Cigar
Pet

Trial 3

Nationality
Beverage
House Color
Brand of Cigar
Pet

Trial 4

Nationality
Beverage
House Color
Brand of Cigar
Pet

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 GEC 14 | BUCS Mathematics Department

Activity

1. The first few lines of the Christmas song Twelve Days of Christmas:

On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me, a partridge in a pear tree. On the
second day of Christmas my true love sent to me, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear
tree. On the third day of Christmas my true love sent to me, three French hens, two turtle
doves and a partridge in a pear tree. And so on.

In all, how many gifts were sent by the True Love to his Lover from the first day to the
twelfth day of Christmas?

After the gift-giving, which of these gifts has the highest quantity? By how many?

2. Every person at a party of twenty-eight people said hello to each of the other people at the
party exactly once. How many "hello's" were said at the party?
3. To improve her handwriting, Pauline practices writing the numbers $1$ to $200$ in words.
How many times will she have written the word "one" in all?
4. John bought eight old coins from Andrew, Andrew told John, “These eight old coins look
alike. But one is slightly heavier than the others. I will give you these old coins for free if by
using a balance scale, you can determine the heavier one in exactly three wieghings." John
was so happy to take home the free old coins. How did he do that?
5. I am thinking of a two-digit number.
 It is odd.
 Its tens digit is even.
 It is prime.
 The sum of its digits is 11.
 The product of its digits is 24.

What number am I thinking of?

6. Find two whole numbers whose product is 1,000,000. Neither of the two numbers has any
zeroes in it.
7. Present a challenging problem. Then, show your solution afterwards.

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