PROBLEM SET 1 MODULE 3: PROBLEM SOLVING

Read and understand the following problems. Solve using Polya’s four step approach and/or using any of
the strategies mentioned in Module 3. Justify your answer using words, numbers, symbols, equations
and/or diagrams.

A. Solve the following problems using Polya’s four step approach.

1. The product of the ages, in years, of three teenagers is 4590. None of the teens are the same
age. What are the ages of the teenagers?

2. A hat and a jacket together costs $100. The jacket costs $90 more than the hat. What are the
cost of the hat and the cost of the jacket?

3. What is the next three terms in the sequence?

2, 7, 24, 59, 118, 207, ____, _____, _____

4. Tanya has 7 pairs of socks, 7 pairs of pants and 7 shirts, one for each color of the rainbow. She
wants to get a pair of socka,a pair of pants, and shirt out of her clothes drawer, and she wants to
make sure theyre all of different colors. If she doesn’t open her yes, how many items of clothing
will she have to remove in order to be sure that she’ll have one of each different color? A pair of
socks counts as two items of clothing ( in a pair of socks, each sock is the same color)

B. Choose and solve five (5) problems using any of the strategies learned from Module 3. Show
complete and orderly solutions ( Justify your answer using words, numbers, symbols,
sentences, diagrams and/or drawings)

1. A police station has 25 vehicles of motorcycles and cars. The total number of wheels is 70. Find
the number of motorcycles and cars the station has.
2. Maria went to the mall to shop. She went to a store, spent half of her money and then P550
more. She went to the second store, spent half of her remaining money and thenP500 more.
She then had no money left. How much money did she have to begin with when she went to the
first store?
3. Jema has P1850 in P20, P50 and P100 bills. If she has twice as many P100 bills as P20 bills, and
five more P50 bills than P100 bills, how many of each bill does she have?
4. During a birthday party of Alyssa, the caterer, uses 40 small square tables to make a long
rectangular table. If each small table can seat only one person on a side, how many people can
be seated at the long table?
5. Jarvy sells apples. He sold half his apples plus half an apple last Monday. Then he sold half his
remaining apples plus half an apple last Tuesday. Again he sold half of his remaining apples plus
half an apple on Wednesday. He then sold the remaining 27 apples on Thursday. How many
apples did Jarvy start with?
6. Doming, Melvin, and Sebastian could each be a dancer, a mechanic, or a singer. None has a job
that starts with the same letter as his name. Doming recently had his car repaired by a
mechanic. Who has which job?
7. Three volumes of Shakespeare stand side by side on a bookshelf. Volume 1 is at the left and
volume 3 is at the right. The bindings are facing you. Each cover is ¼ inch thick and each book is
1 ½ inches thick. If a bookworm ate its way directly from page 1 of Volume 1 to the last page of
volume 3, how far would it travel?
8. Bea, Belinda, Beatrice and Barbara together bought 2 boxes of apples. Each box contains 144
apples. Bea received 10 more apples than Belinda, 26 more than Beatrice, and 32 more than
Barbara. How many apples did Bea receive?
9. Four married couples belong to a club. The wives’ names are Kitty, Sarah, Josie and Anne. Their
husbands’ names are David, Will, Gus and Floyd. Will is Josie’s brother. Sarah and Floyd dated
for several times, but then Floyd met his present wife. Kitty is married to Gus. Anne has two
brother. Anne’s husband is an only child. Determine who is married to whom.
10. By 7pm all the party guests had arrived but by 8Pm a third of them had departed. By 9pm a third
of those remaining had also departed. By 10pm the same happened again and a third of those
remaining had also departed. Finally the party ended at 11pm by which time a further third of
those remaining had also departed and by 11pm only 16 guests still remained. How many guests
were originally at the party at 7pm.