| Original Problem: | Five friends met at a picnic area. Each came separately, arriving at 5-minute intervals. Bev got there first, at 1:15. Sam arrived 10 minutes after Archie did. Bev and Lori were starting the grill when Sylvie arrived, exactly 5 minutes after Sam. Archie had some lemonade before Lori came with the ice. Give the time each person got to the picnic area. |
1. Problem Statement
This problem is called The Picnic. You are supposed to find out what time each person got to the picnic.
2. Process
The method I used for solving the problem was to make a logic table. The first thing I did was make a table with the kids' names and the arrival times written on it. It looked like this:
Each box in the table stands for a combination of one of the people and a time that they came to the park. My idea was to use the clues to put a check in the boxes that have the right time for each person and put an X in all the wrong boxes.
I used the clues to figure out the problem. The problem says Bev arrived first at 1:15. That meant I could put a check in one box right away. Since Bev couldn't come at any other times, I crossed out the other boxes in her row. Also no other person could come at 1:15 so I crossed out the other boxes in that column. The table looked like this:
The next clue said that Sam came 10 minutes after Archie. So, he couldn't come at 1:20 or 1:25 because Archie couldn't come at 1:10 or 1:15. Thinking more about this meant that Archie had to come at 1:20 or 1:25 to allow ten minutes before Sam came. So, I crossed out 1:30 and 1:35 on Archie's row.
The next clue said that Sylvie arrived 5 minutes after Sam. That meant that Sam couldn't have arrived last. The only choice left for him was 1:30 so I checked that box and crossed out 1:35. I also crossed out the other boxes under 1:30. That made the table look like
The same clue said that Sylvie came after Sam so now I knew that she had to come at 1:35. I checked that box and crossed out the rest of the boxes in her row. I also crossed out the other box under 1:35.
The rest was easy. Archie came 10 minutes before Sam so that had to be at 1:20. Crossing out the boxes in Archie's row and the other box under 1:20 left only one choice for Lori. She came at 1:25
The last clue said that Bev and Lori were starting the grill when Sylvie arrived. My table was done but I checked and made sure that they got there before Sylvie.
My Answer
My final answer was
3. Evaluation
I felt this problem was easy. I liked this problem because I like making graphs. I didn't learn anything. I did not think anything was hard. I am proud that I finished it in one day.