Peter had $1800.

After he gave
$400 to John, he had twice as
much money as John. How much
money did John have at first?
(Kantowski 1977)
• Problem develops when students are given mathematics
question which they cannot answer directly or cannot apply their
acquired knowledge or given information within a very short time
interval.
• Problem solving in mathematics is an organised process that needs to
achieve the goal of problem.
• The aim of problem solving is to overcome obstacles set in the problem.
• In addition to overcome the obstacles, students need to analyze the
information given, decide and use much kind of strategies and methods to
solve the problems.
•Routine problem
•Non- routine problem
• Routine problem solving involves using at least one of the
four arithmetic operations and/or ratio to solve problems
that are practical in nature.
• Example: Sofia had 50 oranges. She gave some to her
friend. Now she has 40 oranges. How many did she give to
her friend?
• A non-routine problem is any complex problem that requires some degree
of creativity or originality to solve.
• Non-routine problems typically do not have an immediately apparent
strategy for solving them.
• Often times, these problems can be solved in multiple ways.
• Example: There are 45 questions in an exam. For every correct answer 5
marks awarded and for every wrong answer 3 marks are deducted. Melissa
scored 185 marks. How many correct answers did she give?
Find 45% of 125.
45
x 125 = 56.25
100
Step 1: Understand the problem.

Make sure that you read the question carefully several times.
We are looking for a number that is 45% of 125, we will let
x = the value we are looking for

Step 2: Make a plan (translate).

Step 3: Do the plan (solve).

Step 4: Look back (check and interpret).

56.25 is 45% of 125.

FINAL ANSWER: The number is 56.25.

A police station has 25 vehicles consisting of
motorcycles and cars. The total number of
tyres of both motorcycles and cars equal to
70. Find the number of motorcycles and cars
the station has.
Step 1: Understand the problem.
 What is the question we have to answer? How
many motorcycles and cars in the police station.
 How many vehicles in the police station? 25
vehicles.
 How many number of vehicle’s tyres in police
station? 70 tyres.
 How many tyres that motorcycles have? 2 tyres.
 How many tyres that cars have? 4 tyres
Step 2: Make a plan (translate).
 What strategy will help here?
- Diagram, table
Step 3: Do the plan (solve).

Total of cars Total of Total of tyres

Motorcycles
8 17 (8x4) + (17x2) = 66
9 16 (9x4) + (16x2) = 68
10 15 (10x4) + (15x2) = 70
Step 4: Look back (check and interpret).
10 cars and 15 motorcycles has 70 tyres

FINAL ANSWER: 10 cars and 15 motorcycles

As he grew older, Abraham De Moivre (1667 - 1754), a mathematician
who helped in the development of probability, discovered one day that
he had begun to require 15 minutes more sleep each day. Based on the
assumption that he required 8 hours of sleep on date A and that from
date A he had begun to require an additonal 15 minutes of sleep each
day, he predicted when he would die. The predicted date of death was
the day when he would require 24 hours of sleep. If this indeed
happened, how many days did he live from date A?