Find a pattern & make a table

What Is It?

Finding a Pattern is a strategy in which you look for patterns in the data in order to solve the problem. You look for items or numbers that are repeated, or a series of events that repeat. The following problem can be solved by finding a pattern:

Ben decides to prepare for a marathon by running ten minutes a day, six days a week. Each week, he increases his time running by two minutes per day. How many minutes will he run in week 8?

How To Solve It?

Included in the table is the week number (we’re looking at weeks 1-8), as well as the number of minutes per day and the total minutes for the week. The first step is to fill in the first couple of weeks by calculating the total time.

Making a table and finding a pattern is an excellent math problem solving strategy! This is a great example!

Once you’ve found weeks 1-3, you may see a pattern and be able to calculate the total minutes for week 8. For example, in this case, the total number of minutes increases by 12 each week, meaning in week 8 he will run for 144 minutes.

If not, however, simply continue with the table until you get to week 8, and then you will have your answer.

Independent Task:

WALT - Look for a pattern to help us solve a problem.

GOT it Resource - Problem Sheet 6

Back to the Problem Solving page

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