Problem Solving Assessment

Family/Last name:
UT Student number:
Birthdate:

Reasoning

Four people ran a race, placing first, second, third and fourth, but only the runners know the results. After the race, they made the following statements... If the only person who's telling the truth is the race winner, then who is it?

Planning

In the triangle below, each number is the sum of the two numbers below it. What are the values of a,b,c,d,e,f and g? Note: they are all positive integers (ie. 1,2,3,4,...).
23 / \ f 15 / \ / \ 6 c e / \ / \ / \ a d b g a=
b=
c=
d=
e=
f=
g=

Understanding a definition

For the purposes of this and the next question, we make the following definition:

A zork number is any integer which is 3 more than a multiple of 19.

Proofs

Consider the following proposition and proof... Proposition: There are no zork numbers which are also multiples of 21. Proof: a) By contradiction. b) Assume that there was a zork number which is also a multiple of 21. c) Lets call that integer x. d) Then x=3+19y (because x is a zork number) e) and x=21y (because x is a multiple of 21). f) But then 3+19y=21y g) which implies 3=2y h) which implies y=3/2. j) But then x=21*3/2=63/2 (since we assumed that x=21y) k) which means that x is not an integer. l) Now we assumed that x was a zork number (and so an integer), so this is a contradiction. m) The conclusion is that there are no zork numbers which are also multiples of 21. n) QED Which of the following statements characterizes your understanding of the above proof.

What's your strategy?

What does the following expression evaluate to? 1 1 1 1 1 ---- + ---- + ---- + ---- + ... + -------- 1*2 2*3 3*4 4*5 999*1000 Your answer goes below.

Describe how you came up with your answer in the space below.

There is always evidence

I just found the worn out receipt for the purchase of 72 widgits from Spacely Sprockets (there is no tax on widgits!). Unfortunately, the first and last digits for the total price have worn off leaving the digits
$_67.9_
The underscores represent the missing digits. How much does each widgit cost and what are the missing digits (there is no tax on widgits)?

Fill in the text boxes below:
Each widgit costs .
The total cost for all 72 widgits (no tax!) is .

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