Polya Problem

1. Understand the Problem

If you have 100 lockers and all of them start open and you go down the line and close every

second locker, then start and the beginning and either open or close every third, fourth, fifth, ect.

Until you get to 100. How many lockers are open at the end.

2. Devise a Plan

My plan was to draw a picture, so I had one hundred squares and two separate colored markers,

and when I open a locker I do a dot in blue and when I close it in red. I am a visual person and

feel that this will help me see what I am doing.

3. Carry out the Plan

So I drew 100 squares for the lockers and labeled them 1-100 then I got my separate markers and

started to draw the dots in them. This was a little bit hard to keep track of and I do not want to

recreate it here on a word document. But and the end I got 10 lockers that were open. 1, 4, 9, 16,

25, 36, 49, 64, 81.

4. Look Back

I am positive that there was an easier way to do this problem. It took me way to long and

drawing all those dots cot confusing. I think that finding an equation or doing a different drawing

would have made it easier, even just cutting each locker into open closed segments so I could see

if they were open or closed at the end would have been easier. So while I found the answer I

think I did it the hard way.