Using ping pong balls, the divide & conquer strategy shows how the binary search algorithm works to look up information from any size list.
At least 10 ping pong balls with numbers or animal names written on them
As many cups as ping pong balls (not clear)
How many times would you run through this algorithm if there were 100 ping pong balls? How about 10,000?
This is called a binary search. Why do you think it has that name?
What are some examples you can think of where a search algorithm like this might be used by a computer?
Watch this: Divide & Conquer demonstration
Have the group come up with the recipe (pseudocode) for this activity and then check out the code in this Illustrated Binary Search Algorithm