#3 GEMMW01X - Mathematics in the

Modern World

FLEX Course Material

use different types of
reasoning to justify
statements and
arguments made about
mathematics and
mathematical concepts
(K)
Discuss and solve PROBLEM
SOLVING &
problems using Polya’s
four steps (S)
organize one’s methods

REASONING
and approaches in solving
problems (V)

Arnold A. Eniego and

The Math Faculty of the Science and
Mathematics Department
College of Education, Arts & Sciences
 FOCAL POINTS
What are inductive and deductive reasoning?

Polya’s Problem Solving Strategy

Strategies to solve problems

Week #4 & 5
Time Allotment: 2 weeks/8 hours

• Pre Assessment Page 3

?
• Lesson 1
Inductive Reasoning Page 6
Deductive Reasoning Page 8

• Lesson 2
Problem Solving Page 10

• Summary Page 26

INSIDE • Key Terms Page 27

• Assessment Task Page 28

• Answer Key Page 29

• References Page 30
 PRE-ASSESSMENT

REBUS
Use the visual and word clues to find the words/phrases that fit the
meaning of each picture below.

Example: Answer: In between Jobs

The picture above is an edited version of the file uploaded by Jordyn Wolf at
https://www.pinterest.ph/pin/90635011228052804/.

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Problem In the previous chapter, you learned
that Mathematics is a language. It is used to
Solving and write and convey ideas. It has its own rules,

Reasoning form, symbols, etc. It is amazing that the

language of Math can be understood
anywhere around the world!

In this Chapter, Problem Solving and

Reasoning, you will see Math as a tool that
sharpens one’s critical thinking. It is a staple in
any Mathematics course. We are always asked
to solve problems or reason out in our
Mathematics classes. If you go to Google, you
will see that problem solving and reasoning
skills are so important that employers list it as
one of the top skills they look for in their
applicants.

Did you know that you can

become a millionaire if you
solve a math problem? The Watch how changing your perspective can
Clay Mathematics Institute help you become a successful problem solver
posed 7 Millennium Math
Problems. One of which was in this video here or by scanning the QR code
solved by Grigoriy Perelman in in this page.
2002. One million dollars will
be awarded to anyone that
can solve any of the remaining
6 problems! Read more about
the 7 Millennium problems
here.

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#1

Inductive and
Deductive
Reasoning

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Inductive Reasoning is the process of
drawing a general conclusion by Inductive
observing a pattern based on specific
instances. This conclusion is called a Reasoning
hypothesis or conjecture.

Example:
1. Ten is divisible by two. Learn more about Inductive
and Deductive reasoning from
Fourteen is divisible by two. this video or scan the QR code
below.
Conjecture: All even numbers are divisible by
two.

2. Covid-19 is deadly.
SARS is deadly.
MERS-COV is deadly.
Conjecture: Corona Viruses are deadly.

3. Quezon City is in Metro Manila.

Valenzuela City is in Metro Manila.
Conjecture: All cities are in Metro Manila.

4. Use inductive reasoning to conjecture a

POSSIBLE next two terms in the following
sequences:
a. 3, 6, 9, 12, …
Conjecture: 15 & 18 if it is a sequence of multiples of 3.

b. 3, 5, 7, 11,…
Conjecture: 13 & 17 if it is a sequence of Prime nos.

c. M, V, E, M, …
Conjecture: J & S if they are first letters of the planets in
the solar system

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 Inductive EXERCISES
Use inductive reasoning to draw your own
Reasoning conjecture based on each of the following.
1. Doctors are heroes.
Nurses are heroes.
Conjecture: ________________________________

2. Three is a prime number.

Five is a prime number.
Seven is a prime number.
1. Conjectures obtained using Conjecture: ________________________________
inductive reasoning are not
always true. For instance, 3. Conjecture a POSSIBLE next two terms:
Example 3 in the previous a. 2, 5, 10, 17, 26, …
page is not true since Cebu
b. A, 1, Z, 2, B, …
and New York are cities, but
they are not in Metro Manila. c. 3, 5, 9, 17, 33, …

4. Consider the following procedure: Pick a

2. There are many ways to number. Multiply the number by 8, add 6 to the
answer Example 4. In 4a, the product, divide the sum by 2, and subtract 3.
sequence defined by Repeat the procedure for several different
an= 3n+(n-1)(n-2)(n-3)(n-4) numbers. Make a conjecture about the
is also a sequence whose relationship between the size of the resulting
terms include 3, 6, 9, and 12. number and the size of the original number.
Using this definition, the next
two terms will be 39 and 138. 5. If there is a 4th figure below, what number
should be at the bottom of that figure? What
conjecture can you form?

Need to practice more your

inductive reasoning? Take a free
test in this website or scan the
QR below.
6. An example that makes a conjecture false is
called a counterexample. Can you give a
counterexample for the following?
a. A real number multiplied by itself is
positive.
b. A number divided by itself is 1.
c. All birds can fly.

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Deductive Reasoning is the process of
using premises (accepted facts) and Deductive
logical principles to arrive at a specific
conclusion. Reasoning
Example:
1. A number that is divisible by two is even.
Conclusion: 2020 is even.
Conclusions obtained
using deductive
2. Corona Viruses cause respiratory infections. reasoning are always
correct.
Covid-19 is a corona virus.
Conclusion: Covid-19 cause respiratory
infections.

3. Metro Manila is in the Philippines.

Quezon City is in Metro Manila.
Conclude: Quezon City is in the Philippines.

4. Each of the four friends Donna, Sarah,

Nikkie, and Xhanelle, has a different pet (fish, You learned about
cat, dog, and snake). Use deductive reasoning implications or conditional
statements in Chapter 2.
to determine the pet of everyone using the Implications in Mathematics
clues below. are only accepted to be true if
• Sarah is older than her friend who owns the they are proven using
deductive reasoning. Read
cat and younger than her friend who owns more here or scan the QR
the dog. code below.
• Nikkie and her friend who owns the snake
are both of the same age and are the
youngest members of their group.
• Donna is older than her friend who owns the
fish.
Solution: The clues will serve as facts. Clue#1
& 2 suggests that Sarah owns a fish. Clue#1 &
3 indicates that Donna owns a dog. Finally,
Xhanelle owns the snake while Nikkie owns a
cat using the remaining clues.

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Deductive EXERCISES
Use deductive reasoning to draw your own
Reasoning conclusion based on each of the following.
1. Health workers are heroes.
Daniel and Rhon are Health workers.
Conclusion: ________________________________

2. A parallelogram is a polygon with two pairs

of parallel sides.
Squares have two pairs of parallel sides.
Conclusion: ________________________________

3. Consider the following procedure: Pick a

number. Multiply the number by 10, add 8 to
the product, divide the sum by 2 and subtract 4.
Make a conjecture about the relationship
between the size of the resulting number and
the size of the original number. Use deductive
reasoning to prove your conjecture.

4. Each of four neighbors, Honey, Lovely, Sweet,

Need to practice more your and Candy, has a different occupation (editor,
deductive reasoning? Take a
free test in this website or scan banker, chef, or dentist). From the following
the QR below. clues, use deductive reasoning to determine the
occupation of each person.
• Lovely gets home from work after the
banker but before the dentist.
• Sweet, who is the last to get home from
work, is not the editor.
• The dentist and Sweet leave for work at the
same time.
• The banker lives next door to Candy.

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#2

Problem
Solving

10
 • Ancient mathematicians
such as Euclid and Pappus
Polya’s
were interested in solving
Problem mathematical problems, but
Solving they were also interested in
Strategy heuristics, the study of the
methods, and rules of
discovery and invention.

• George Polya (1887 – 1985)

was born in Hungary and
moved to the United States in
1940. The basic problem-
solving strategy that Polya
advocated consisted of the
following steps.
1. Understand the problem.

Read more about Polya in this 2. Devise a plan.

website or scan the QR below.
3. Carry out the plan.
4. Review the solution.

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 Can you restate
the problem in
your own
words?

Understanding Can you

determine what
the Problem is known about
these type of
This part of Polya’s four- problems?
step strategy is often
overlooked. You must have
a clear understanding of the
problem. To help you focus Is there missing
on understanding the information
problem, consider the that, if known,
following questions. would allow you
to solve the
problem?

Is there
extraneous
information that
is not needed to
solve the
problem?

What is the
goal?

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Devising a Plan

There are many ways to solve a problem. The following are only a few ways to solve
some problems.

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 table or chart

Work backward

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 check the result

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Carry Out The Plan

Once you have devised a plan, you must carry it out.

Work carefully

Keep accurate and neat record

of all your attempts

Realize that some of your existing plans will

not work and that you could devise another
plan or modify your existing plan.

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 Review The Solution

Once you found a solution, check the solution.

01 02 03
Ensure that the Interpret the solution Ask yourself whether
solution is consistent in the context of the there are
with the facts of the problem. generalizations of the
problem. solution that could
apply to other
problems.

15
Problems
1. Determine the units digit (ones’ digit) of the
counting number represented by the
exponential expression
Solving
300
a. 4
Problems by
b. 2725 Looking for a
2. For each integer 𝑛 > 1, find the distinct Pattern
positive integer 𝑥 and 𝑦 such that

1/𝑥 + 1/𝑦 = 1/𝑛.

3. What is the next letter in the sequence Z, O,

T, T, F, F, S, S, E . . . ?

Watch more about solving

problems by looking at a
pattern in this video or scan
the QR code below.

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Solution to Problem 1

a. The units digit of 4300

We try to find a pattern to solve this problem. We try to study the powers of 4.
The table below shows the first 6 powers of 4 and the corresponding units digit.
Powers of 4 Units Digit Observe that the units digit of
41=4 4 powers of 4 are either 4 or 6. If
42=16 6 the exponent of 4 is odd, the
43 = 64 4 units digit is 4 while if the
44 = 256 6 exponent of 4 is even, the units
45 = 1024 4 digit is 6.
46 = 4096 6
⋮ ⋮

Therefore, the units digit of 4300 is 6.

b. The units digit of 2725

We use the same strategy as in a. The table below shows the first 8 powers of 2
and the corresponding units digit.
Powers of 2 Unit Digit Observe that the units digit of powers of 2
21 = 2 2 are either 2, 4, 8, or 6. These units digits
22 = 4 4 rotate in order every 4th power. To know
23 = 8 8 the units digit of 2725, we divide 725 by 4
24 = 16 6 and determine the remainder. Note that
25 = 32 2 the remainder when 725 is divided by 4 is
1. Thus, the units digit of 2725 is the same
26 = 64 4
as the units digit of the first power of 2
27 = 128 8
which is 2.
28 = 256 6
⋮ ⋮

Therefore, the unit digit 2725 is 2.

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Solution to Problems 2 and 3

2. Let n be a positive integer greater than 1. By inspection,

𝒏 𝒙 𝒚 𝟏/𝒙 𝟏/𝒚 𝟏 𝟏 𝟏
+ =
𝒙 𝒚 𝒏
2 3 6 1/3 1/6 1 1 1
+ =
3 6 2
3 4 12 1/4 1/12 1 1 1
+ =
4 12 3
4 5 20 1/5 1/20 1 1 1
+ =
5 20 4
⋮ ⋮ ⋮ ⋮ ⋮ ⋮

𝑛 𝑛+1 𝑛(𝑛 + 1) 1 1 1 1 1
+ =
𝑛+1 𝑛(𝑛 + 1) 𝑛 + 1 𝑛(𝑛 + 1) 𝑛

Thus, 𝑥 = 𝑛 + 1 and 𝑦 = 𝑛(𝑛 + 1).

3. The letters in the sequence are the first letters when you spell the numbers 0, 1, 2,
3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, … . In particular, the sequence can be viewed as Zero, One, Two, Three,
Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, … . Hence, the next letter in the sequence is N for Nine.

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Problems
1. It cost Php. 50.00 to cut and weld a chain
link. Esmeralda has seven link and wishes to Solving
make a chain. What is the minimum cost to do
this? Problems by
2. Kagura and Hayabusa are both part-time in
Drawing a
the local sushi shop. The shop is open 7 days Picture or a
a week. Kagura works one day and then has 2 Diagram
days off before she works again. Hayabusa
works one day, and then has 3 days off before
he works again. Kagura and Hayabusa both
work on Tuesday, March 1st. On which other
days in March do Kagura and Hayabusa work
together on the same day?

Solve more problems by

drawing a picture or a
diagram in this website or
scan the QR code below.

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Solution to Problem 1

Open link 2 and connect links 1, 2, and 3

Open link 5 and connect links 4, 5, and 6

Finally, open link 7 and connect the chain 1-2-3 and 4-5-6 by link 7.
Since we only had to cut three links to make this chain, the cost will Php. 150.00 to
make the chain.

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Solution to Problem 2

We will make a drawing of a calendar and then simply place initials on those dates
on which each person works.
Kagura’s work schedule

Hayabusa’s work schedule

Work Schedule of Kagura and Hayabusa

Those dates which contain two sets of initials are the dates on which Kagura and
Hayabusa work together. The figure readily shows these dates to be March 13th and
25th.

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 Exercises

1. Use a table to conjecture a possible next term in the sequence 2, 7, 24, 59, 118, 207, …
2. Suppose we cut out two opposite corners of a chessboard. If one domino can cover
exactly two squares of a chessboard, can we cover the chessboard with 31 dominoes?
3. 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?
4. In a basketball league consisting of 10 teams, each team plays each of the other teams
exactly three times. How many league games will be played?
5. Three farmers – Akai, Clint and Claude, spend a day gathering coconuts together.
When they have finished, they are very tired and fell asleep. The following morning
Akai wakes up. Not wishing to disturb his friends, he decides to divide the coconuts
into three. There is one left over, so he throws this odd one away, helps himself to his
share, and goes home. A few minutes later, Clint awakes. Not realizing that the first has
already gone, he too divides the coconuts into three. He finds one left over, throws the
odd one away, helps himself to his fair share, and goes home. In the morning, Claude
wakes to find that he is alone. He spots the two discarded coconuts, and puts them
with the pile, giving him a total of 20 coconuts. How many coconuts did the farmers
gather in all?
6. The line for the Dunking Machine was twice as long as the Cake Walk line. The line for
the Cake Walk was one-third the length of the line for the Hoop Shoot. If there were
120 people in the line for the Hoop Shoot, how many people were in a line for the
Dunking Machine?
7. What is the last two digits of 92020 ?
8. The table shown below continues indefinitely. What is the 3rd letter in 2020th row?

9. McDonald’s sells McNuggets in boxes of 8, 15, and 20 pieces. What is the largest
number of pieces that cannot be bought?
10. How many integers are there between 4000 to 5000 whose digits are in ascending
order?
11. Add an operational symbol between each number to make the equation true.
1____2_____3_____4_____5_____6_____7_____8_____9 = 100

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 SUMMARY

Recall this chapter by answering the following

questions.

• Differentiate Inductive from Deductive reasoning.

• Give Examples on how Inductive and Deductive

reasoning is used in mathematics and in daily life?

• What are the four steps in problem solving according

to Polya?

• What are some strategies that can be used to solve a

problem?

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 KEY TERMS

• Inductive Reasoning

• Deductive Reasoning

• Polya’s 4-Steps in Problem Solving

• Strategies in Solving Problems

 ASSESSMENT TASK

Mathematics in the Modern World

Module 3- Problem Solving and Reasoning
Assessment Task:
Skill Demonstration
(To be announced)

Adopted and revised version of https://www.thoughtco.com/essay-rubric-2081367

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 ANSWER KEY

Answer to Exercises

Page 3, Pre-Assessment
Man Overboard; Big Baby; Bear in the Woods; Dive in the Pool
Too Funny for Words; Big Head, Green Grass, Down Hill
Inside Job; Broken Promises; Long Legs; Little League
Lost in Space; Knock on Wood; Playing Outside; Pretty Please

Page 7
1. Front liners are heroes.
2. Prime numbers have only 2 factors.
3. a. 37, 50 b. 3, Y c. 65, 129
4. The resulting number is four times the original number.
5. The number is 64. The number below the nth figure is given by 4n-1.
6. a. 0 b. 0 c. Penguins

Page 9
1. Daniel and Rhon are heroes.
2. A square is a parallelogram.
3. 5x
4. Sweet-Chef, Candy-Dentist, Lovely-Editor, Honey-Banker

Page 25
1. 332
2. No
3. 6
4. 135
5. 43
6. 720
7. 1
8. I
9. 57
10. 10
11. 1 + 2+ 3 – 4 X 5 + 6 X 7 + 8 X 9 = 100

26
 REFERENCES

Ashley, M. (2013). Working Backward to solve problems.

Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v34NqCbAA1c

Bogomolny, A. (2018). Proofs in Mathematics. Retrieved from

https://www.cut-the-knot.org/proofs/index.shtml

Don’t Memorise. (2019). Introduction to Inductive and Deductive

Reasoning. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAjkQ1YqLEE

Justin, J. (2010). Reasoning Methods. Lecture Notes in

Introduction to Logic. Retrieve from
http://web.mnstate.edu/jamesju/Fall2010/Content/M102LogicIn
tro.pdf

Nocon, R.C. & Nocon, E.G. (2016). Essential Mathematics for the
Modern World. Philippines: C & E Publishing, Inc.

O'Connor, J. and Robertson, E. (2002). George Polya Biography.

Retrieved from https://mathshistory.st-
andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Polya/

Practicle Maths. (2019). Math Heuristics Explained: Solve Maths

Pattern Questions in a Flash! Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rupyoBsslD8

Zara Tarter. (2015). Problem Solving Through Perspective Change.

TEDx Talks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEJFrBJCvW8

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