PROBLEM SOLVING

STRATEGIES
Ancient mathematicians
One of the foremost recent
who were interested in
mathematicians to make a study of
problem-solving are Euclid,
problem solving was George Polya (1887–
Rene Descartes, and
1985). He was born in Hungary and moved
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz.
to the United States in 1940.
POLYA’S STEPS IN PROBLEM SOLVING
Understand the
Problem

Devise a Plan

Carry out the

Plan

Look Back
 Understand Carry
Devise Look
out the
the Problem a Plan
Plan
Back

 Do you understand all the words used in stating the

problem?
 What are you asked to find or show?
 Can you restate the problem in your own words?
 Can you think of a picture or diagram that might help
you understand the problem?
 Is there enough information to enable you to find a
solution?
 Understand the Devise a Carry
out the
Look
Problem
Plan Plan
Back

Polya mentions
Find the that there
connection betweenare
the
many
data reasonable ways to
and the unknown. Yousolve
may be
problems.
obliged toThe skill at
consider choosing an
auxiliary
appropriate
problems if strategy is best
an immediate
learned
connectionby solving
cannot bemany problems.
found. You
You will
should find choosing
obtain eventually a strategy
a plan of
increasingly
the solution.easy.
 Understand the Devise a Carry
out the
Look
Problem
Plan Plan
Back

A partial list of strategies is included:

Make a list of the known information.
Make a list of information that is
needed.
Draw a diagram.
Make an organized list that shows all
the possibilities.
Make a table or a chart.
Work backwards.
 Understand the Devise a Carry
out the
Look
Problem
Plan Plan
Back

 Try to solve a similar but simpler

problem.
 Look for a pattern.
 Write an equation. If necessary,
define what each variable represents.
 Perform an experiment.
 Guess at a solution and then check
your result.
 Understand the Devise a Carry out Look
Problem Plan
the Plan Back

■ Work carefully.
■ Keep an accurate and neat record of
all your attempts.
■ Realize that some of your initial
plans will not work and that you may
have to devise another plan or modify
your existing plan.
 Understand Devise
Carry
out the
Look
the Problem a Plan
Plan Back
Once you have found a solution, check the
solution.
■ Ensure that the solution is consistent
with the facts of the problem.
■ Interpret the solution in the context
of the problem.
■ Ask yourself whether there are
generalizations of the solution that
could apply to other problems.
A baseball team won two out of their
last four games. In how many
different orders could they have two
wins and two losses in four games?
SOLUTION:
1. Understand the Problem:
 What are the given facts?
A baseball team won two out of their last four games.
 What are you asked to find?
Find the number of different orders they could have with
two wins and two losses in four games.
2. Devise your Plan
 Choose a Strategy.
We will MAKE AN ORGANIZED LIST of all the possible
orders. An organized list is a list that is produced using a
system that ensures that each of the different orders will be
listed once and only once.
3. Carry Out the Plan
 Each entry in our list must contain two Ws and two Ls.

Make sure each order is considered, with no duplications. By

listing, it produces the six different orders shown below.

1. WWLL (Start with two wins)

2. WLWL (Start with one win)
3. WLLW
4. LWWL (Start with one loss)
5. LWLW
6. LLWW (Start with two losses)
4. Look Back
We have made an organized list. The list has no duplicates
and the list considers all possibilities, so we are confident that
there are six different orders in which a baseball team can win
exactly two out of four games.