I am having a hard time understanding the tower building problem as it is written. If we start with 5 blocks and it really does take 1 week to put one stack on top of another stack then:
- It would take a week to get 3 stacks of 1 block and 1 stack of 2 blocks.
- It would take another week to get 2 stacks of 2 blocks and 1 stack of 1 block.
- It would take a third week to get 1 stack of 4 blocks and 1 stack of 1 block.
- It would take a fourth week to get 1 stack of 5 blocks.
Based on the tables that are provided there are other instructions implied but I’m not seeing all of the implied instructions. Would someone please help?
I think the part you are missing is that Mr. Trump can have as many of the special lifting trucks as needed. With 5 blocks at the end of week 1, there would be 2 stacks of 2 and 1 stack of 1. At week 2, there would be either 1 stack of 4 and 1 stack of 1 OR 1 stack of 2 and 1 stack of 3. Note: it is not possible to use two different trucks to move a stack within the same week. If you had 10 bricks, 5 trucks could make 5 stacks of 2 in the first week. In week 2, all five trucks would not be used.
Hope that helps!
Andrea
1 Like
Aizaikhaanahoyo,
I think this is a difficult problem to do without visuals (and is constantly asked about during Professional Development sessions). I completely agree with Andrea’s post, and made a visual hoping it helps!
Tower Building.pdf (27.9 KB)
Brad
2 Likes
Thanks Andrea. That did help and should certainly have been explicitly written in the problem information!