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Richard Lewis, Chis & Sid GS
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
"I will be using this tomorrow with a bright Year 7 group. It's a great introduction to real-world logistics problems!
However it strikes me that increasing the size of the numbers in the grid doesn't actually significantly increase the complexity because it is still relatively easy to spot the smaller and larger value routes on such a small grid.
Adding another row to the grid would possibly be a better way of raising the difficulty level since there are then more options to evaluate mentally."

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Excellent, I would like to see more like this
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Didn't really capture the interest of the students
Not for me! I wouldn't use this type of activity.

This starter has scored a mean of 4.0 out of 5 based on 83 votes.

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Answers

There are 10 different five step routes from Los Angeles to Las Vegas.

Los Angeles - 7 - 6 - 1 - 7 - Los Vegas [Total = 21]

Los Angeles - 7 - 6 - 3 - 7 - Los Vegas [Total = 23]

Los Angeles - 7 - 6 - 3 - 4 - Los Vegas [Total = 20]

Los Angeles - 7 - 9 - 3 - 7 - Los Vegas [Total = 26]

Los Angeles - 7 - 9 - 3 - 4 - Los Vegas [Total = 23]

Los Angeles - 7 - 9 - 5 - 4 - Los Vegas [Total = 25]

Los Angeles - 6 - 9 - 3 - 7 - Los Vegas [Total = 25]

Los Angeles - 6 - 9 - 3 - 4 - Los Vegas [Total = 22]

Los Angeles - 6 - 9 - 5 - 4 - Los Vegas [Total = 24]

Los Angeles - 6 - 8 - 5 - 4 - Los Vegas [Total = 23]

So the cheapest route costs 20 (dollars). Here is a way of getting that total:

Los Angeles	7	6	1
6	9	3	7
8	5	4	Las Vegas

You can view another version of this starter generated from random numbers. Puzzle 1 is the easiest, puzzle 5 is very difficult.

Note to teacher: Doing this activity once with a class helps students develop strategies. It is only when they do this activity a second time that they will have the opportunity to practise those strategies. That is when the learning is consolidated. Click the button above to regenerate another version of this starter from random numbers.


	Teacher, do your students have access to computers? Do they have Laptops in Lessons or iPads? Whether your students each have a TabletPC, a Surface or a Mac, this activity lends itself to eLearning (Engaged Learning).

Here is the URL for a concise version of this page without comments or answers.

Transum.org/go/?Start=November20

Students can make their own version of this "Route to Las Vegas" activity using a spreadsheet. The size of the grid can be varied and the random function can be used.

Route to Las Vegas

A Maths Starter of The Day

Answers