Polya Problem

1. Understand the Problem

There is an unknown amount of runners running in a race. Stan places dead middle with Dan

behind him in 10th place. Then there is another runner Van in 16th place. How many runners are

there total?

2. Devise a plan

Well we know that because Stan is in the exact middle it is an odd number of runners running in

the race. We also know that there are more than 16 runners. My plan is to work up from 16

checking odd numbers to find one where Stan can be dead center and still be under 10th.

3. Carry out the Plan

So carrying out the plan I started with 17 and started counting while drawing lines one on one

side and one on the other till I had 16 then did 17 in the middle and counted up to see what place

he was in. This put Stan in 9th place right before Dan which is accurate to the story. This is also

the answer if you continue to 19 that makes Stan 10th place which is not possible. There are 17

runners is our answer.

4. Look Back

This was a fairly easy question for me to figure out. I do not feel that I really struggled with it. It

was a fairly simple problem to work out the only thing that took me a bit of time was working

out that dead center meant that it had to be an odd number, once I had that figured out it was

fairly easy to work out the answer from the information that we had. Drawing a picture was not

necessary either but I find that it helps me keep track of information and not to make a mistake.