POW #1 - Hide and Seek

Zoe Ramsey

● Problem Statement:
○ There are 5 boxes they are all labeled 1-5, and there is someone
hiding in it. Each night they will move one over into an adjacent box,
you can look in one box each day. How long will it take you to find the
person? How can you ensure you will find the person hiding? How
long would it take with 4 boxes or 6 boxes?

● Process:
○ Step 1:
■ When I was starting to solve this problem I drew out 5 different
circles as placeholders for boxes. This helped me visualize
what was happening instead of trying to keep track of
everything in my head. I also drew out different rows of 5 to
mark with my guesses, then to move through the different days
with new guesses.

○ Step 2:
■ Then I went through each box and guessed which one I
thought he was in. I just went through each night and
continued to guess. As I did that I canceled out boxes that I
knew he couldn’t be in. I knew I had a good guess if it canceled
out a few boxes that he could be in. I did this entire process
with John, to make sure I was in the right direction.

○ Step 5:
■ Repeated this process of guessing with the 4 boxes and 6
boxes until I found answers I was happy with. I realized that you
have to move in a zig-zag pattern to counteract his moves.
Also, it is really helpful to try and trap him and corner and
mark off boxes that he couldn't be in.

○ Step 4:
■ Once I found answers I was happy with, I went to my classmate
Zoell to discuss. So we could check our answers with one
another and make sure we were right. We had the same
answers so we both assumed we were right. Or at least that
was a sum-what right answer and we were both on the right
track.
 ○ Step 5:
■ Finally, I took my final answers to John and see what he had to
say.

● Work
○ 4 Boxes

○ 5 Boxes
 ■

○ 6 Boxes
 ■

● Solution:
○ Solution
■ Sequence for 5
● 2,3,4,2,3,4
● 6 Tries

○ Honors Solution
■ Sequence for 4
● 2,3,3,2
● 4 Tries

■ Sequence for 6
● 2,3,4,5,4,3,2
● 7 Tries

■ Sequence for N Boxes

● 2,3,4……N-1……4, 3, 2,

● Reflection:
○ Personally, I did not like this POW because I felt like this is not math
related at all and it is extremely off-topic from what we are learning in
class. While I think this POW challenged my critical thinking skills,
although don't think I learned anything from it. This just made me
think about a wack-a-mole, nothing more and nothing less. When
approaching a difficult/impossible problem I would make a plan, try
a bunch of different solutions, then I would see which one made the
most sense and run with that. Once I found a solution I am happy
with I would go over my work again but this time backward and see if
I end up where I started. This is basically the process I followed for
this POW. I liked how it worked and turned out, this works very well for
how my brain works.