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Lesson: Challenging Problem Solving - 06t07

Advanced Algebra: Example 1

[Page 6 of 37]
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Review the following question and then proceed to the task below.

On segment JN above, JL = 38 and KN = 44. If KL is 3 times the length of LM, and if MN is half the length of JK, what is the length of KM?

40
32
24
10
It cannot be determined from the information given.
Which of the following Problem Solving approaches can be used to solve the question above? Select Yes or No and then click Continue.
  YES NO
Backsolving:
Picking Numbers:
Algebra:
Use CAT's Backsolving strategy to solve the problem above. Let's start out by using Choice (B) to complete the following statement. Enter your responses into the textboxes below and then click Continue.
If KM = 32, then KL = and LM = .
Now that we have lengths for KL and LM, we can find the remaining segment lengths. Complete the following statement and then click Continue.
If KL = 24 and LM = 8, then JK = and MN = .
Now evaluate the lengths to see if they are in keeping with the information provided in the question stem. Choose whether Choice (B) may be eliminated, and then click Continue.
  Keep Choice (B)
  Eliminate Choice (B)
Choice (B), 32, is not the correct answer. The question stem states that MN is half the length of JK. According to our sketch, this is not the case when KM = 32. When KM = 32, MN is too large in comparison to JK: . We need a larger number for KM so that MN becomes smaller relative to JK.

At this point, we can select Choice (A), 40, as the correct answer without even Backsolving it. Why? Two reasons: 1) It's the only larger answer choice left, and 2) we can eliminate Choice (E), "It cannot be determined…" We know that this question CAN be solved since we just evaluated answer Choice (B) and were able to get a concrete, though incorrect, value.

Remember, however, that this problem may also be solved algebraically, The algebraic solution is quite fast; if you were able to translate the relative segment lengths into their algebraic equivalents, the solution to this question would be pretty quick. So even though Backsolving works well here and on many other problems, it is well worth your time to practice translating wordy algebraic problems to their mathematical equivalents.

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