Problem Set (Problem Solving)

1. Three waiters, Jake, John and Jimmy, were supposed to share equally the tips for the day. The
tips were placed in a box. At the end of the day, Jake took 1/3 of the tips and left. John, not
knowing that Jake had taken his share, took 1/3 of the remaining money in the box. Finally, Jimmy
came and took 1/3 of the rest of the money and left behind P180. How much did each waiter get
from the box?

2. Indiana Jones needs to cross a flimsy rope bridge over a mile-long gorge. It is so dark that it is
impossible to cross the bridge without a flashlight. Furthermore, the bridge is so weak that it can
only support the weight of two people. The party has just one flashlight, which has a weak beam,
so whenever two people cross, they are constrained to walk together, at the speed of the slower
person. Indiana Jones can cross the bridge in five minutes. His girlfriend can cross in 10 minutes.
His father needs 20 minutes, and his father's sidekick needs 25 minutes. They need to get
everyone across safely in one hour to escape the bad guys. Can they do it?

3. Four men were shipwrecked on an island. Having no food, they went to work gathering
pineapples. After gathering pineapples, they were tired and all fell asleep. After another while, one
of the men awoke and was very hungry so he ate 1/3 of the pineapples - more than his proper
share. He then went back to sleep. The second man awoke and being hungry, ate 1/3 of the
remaining pineapples and went back to sleep. The third man did the same. When the fourth man
awoke, he took only his rightful share of the remaining pineapples. Then there were 6 pineapples
left. How many pineapples did the men gather?

4. How many squares are in the following figure?

5. Consider the following map. Tyler wishes to walk along the streets from point A to point B. How
many direct routes (no backtracking) can Tyler take?

6. Determine the nth-term formula for the number of square tiles in the nth figure.
7. A Cryptarithm. The following puszzle is a famous cryptarithm.

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Each letter in the cryptarithm represents one of the digits 0 through 9. The leading digits, represented by S
and M are not zero. Determine which digit is represented by each of the letters so that the addition is
correct. Note: A letter that is used more than once, such as M, represents the same digit in each position in
which it appears.
8. Use the given nth-term formula to compute the first five terms of the sequence.

The advantage of this formula over the recursive formula is that you can
determine the nth Fibonacci number without finding the two preceding Fibonacci numbers. Use
Binet’s formula and a calculator to find the 20th, 30th, and 40th Fibonacci numbers.

9. Number of Children. How many children are there in a family wherein each girl has as many
brothers as sisters, but each boy has twice as many sisters as brothers?

10. Find the Fake Coin. You have eight coins. They all look identical, but one is a fake and is
slightly lighter than the others. Explain how you can use a balance scale to determine which coin
is the fake in exactly
a. three weighings.
b. two weighings

11. Solve the Ken-ken puzzle