Problem of the Week 8

Due Friday, December 11

Four mathletes, Brianna, Andy, Courtney and Brandon, competed in the
finals of the Animas High School Math Bowl. Prizes were awarded for the top
three competitors as follows: first place received an anniversary Math
Faculty Pink Tie, second place received a book of Brain Teasers, and third
place received an I Love Math T-shirt.
Three staff members of AHS predicted how the prizes would be awarded.
Brandon, Andy, Courtney, Brianna
Lauren predicted that Brandon would win the pink tie, Andy would win the
book and Courtney would win the T-shirt.
Hannah predicted that Brianna would win the pink tie, Brandon would win
the book and Courtney would win the T-shirt.
Aliza predicted that Andy would win the pink tie, Brianna would win the book
and Brandon would win the T-shirt.
1. Understanding the problem:
The problem for this week is one that made us make connections and use
logical thinking. In this problem there are 4 people (Brianna, Brandon, Andy
and Courtney) competing for the top 3 prizes, an anniversary Math Faculty
Pink Tie for first place, a book of Brain Teasers for second place, and I Love
Math T-shirt for third place. 3 staff members (Aliza, Hannah, and Lauren) all
predicted who would win which prize. It turned out that each of them ended
up predicting one prize winner correctly. We are tasked with discovering who
got each prize based on their predictions.

2. Process:
To start, I made a list of which prize each contestant could possibly win
based on the predictions.
Andy can only win either the book or the pink tie
Brianna can only win the book or the pink tie
Courtney can only win the T-shirt
Because Cortney can only receive the shirt and each teacher can only guess
one prize correctly and there can only be one receiver of each prize,
Courtney is the one person that did not receive a prize.
Because Courtney is out that means that Lauren and Hannah only have 2
possible correct answers

 Laurens remaining predictions are that Brandon would win the pink tie or
Andy would win the book. Hannahs are that Brianna would win the pink tie
and that Brandon would win the book.
Because they both have to have a correct prediction, it is clear that Brianna
would have to win the pink tie and that Any would have to win the book.
ALizas prediction is that Andy would win the pink tie, Brianna would win the
book and Brandon would win the T-shirt.
Because Brianna has already won the tie and Andy has already won the
book, Brandon has to win the T-shirt.
3. Solution:
In the competition, Brianna received the 1st place prize of the Pink tie, Andy
received the second place prize of the book and finally Brandon received the
third place prize of the shirt.
4. Justification:
This POW was definitely difficult for me and at first I had no idea how to go
about it. But, after talking to Jason and Kai about their methods I began to
understand it. The method of highlighting the text really helped me to see
the connections between the statements. I was at a point where i got the jist
of it but it wasnt until Aliza helped me sort out my thoughts that I
understood it! In the end, this was actually one of my favorite POWs.