AmayaHollidaysPOW#5

ProblemStatement:
Thisproblemwasaskinghowmanypiecesofpieyoucanmakewithacertainamount
ofslices.Theslicesdonthavetobethesamesize.Youshouldstartbyfinding
maximumnumberofpieceswith4cutsfirst.Then,workyourwayuptofindthe
maximumnumberofpiecesfor10cuts.Also,youshouldfindapatternwiththeanswers
youfound.

Process:
IstartedoutbydrawingacircletorepresentapiethenIdrew4lines(numberofcuts)
acrossthepie.Afterthat,Icountedallthepiecesofpie.Imademultipledifferentpies
with4lines.MyfirstpieIonlymade9pieces.Next,Imadeanotherpieandfoundyou
canmakean11piecespiewithfourlines.Iwasconfidentthat11wasthemostpieces
youcouldcut.Additionally,IaskedAcaciatocheckmyworkandshegotthe11slices
too.Ithenmovedtofivelines.Myfirstpiewithfivelinesmade15pieces.Idecidedto
makemore5cutpiesandIgota10piecepieand16piecepie.Ithenknew16hadto
bethemaximumnumberofpieces.Inoticedthattherewasapattern.Thepatternisthe
numberofcutsplusthemaximumpiecesoftheonebeforeit.Forexample,2plus2is
4.(Allofthisdatacanbeviewedonmyscratchpaper.)

Solution:

Numberofcuts

MaximumNumberofPieces

11

16

22

29

37

46

10

56

ThepatternIfoundis
thenumberofcutsplusthemaximumpiecesoftheonebeforeit.

Tofindthemaximumnumberofpiecesfor10cutsyouwouldget56becausethe
maximumnumberofpiecesfromtheoneaboveit,46,plus10is56.Iusedthispattern
foralltheanswersinthetableabove.Toprovethat,Iwillpickarandomamountofcuts,
Ichoseseven.IfIfollowthepatternandadd7andthemaximumnumberofpiecesfrom
theoneaboveit,22youget29.Ithinkthispatternoccursbecausetofindthe
maximumnumberofpieceswithacertainamountofcutsyouknowitwillbeatleastthe
maximumnumberofpiecesfromtheonebeforeitandthenthemorelinesyouhavethe
morepiecescanbemade.Whenthesetwonumbersareaddedtogethertheywillthen
equalyourmaximumnumberofpiecesforthatamountofcuts.

Evaluation:
IenjoyedthisPOWbecauseitwentwithaholidaytheme.Ithinkitwastheperfect
challengelevel.IalsoenjoyedthisPOWbecausetheinandouttablewentwiththe
unitwearestudying.IfIweregoingtodothisagainIwouldtrytousearulerwhen
makingmylinesbecausetheycouldhavebeenmoreaccurate.