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King Arthur had lost his sanity and decided that the way to choose a groom for his daughter was to chop off the heads of every other knight seated at the round table until one was left. The document explores different approaches to solving the problem of how a knight can predict their survival no matter how many knights are seated. These approaches include drawing diagrams, using Excel to simulate different seating arrangements, discussing it with classmates, and realizing that the knight in the first seat will survive if the number of knights is a power of two. The document reflects on the learning experience of exploring a complex problem through various strategies and collaboration.

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59 views

Deepa Short Paper Comments

King Arthur had lost his sanity and decided that the way to choose a groom for his daughter was to chop off the heads of every other knight seated at the round table until one was left. The document explores different approaches to solving the problem of how a knight can predict their survival no matter how many knights are seated. These approaches include drawing diagrams, using Excel to simulate different seating arrangements, discussing it with classmates, and realizing that the knight in the first seat will survive if the number of knights is a power of two. The document reflects on the learning experience of exploring a complex problem through various strategies and collaboration.

Uploaded by

api-306649306
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Deepa Bharath

7/6/14

Assignment 1: Short Paper

Exploring the tragic dilemma of the knights at King Arthurs round


table.
King Arthur had momentarily lost his sanity and chosen a barbaric way to
pick a groom for his daughter. He chops off the head of every other knight
at the round table, until just one was left.

Is there a way to predict where to sit in order to survive no matter


how many knights are seated at the table?

King Arthurs Problem should be renamed the The Knights Tragedy. I


selected this problem because it seemed hopeless, ridiculous and seemingly
without the possibility of resolution. The situation was interesting,
horrifying and engaging at the same time. I didnt know where to begin. The
fact that all the information was conveyed through words also influenced my
decision. No model was suggested or implied so I was curious to see what I
might do. There seemed to be a huge element of luck/chance we did not
know where King Arthur would begin his count and we did not know how
many knights were at the table.
Phase 1: Tinkering Around with the problem:

Deepa Bharath
7/6/14

Drawing to try to better understand the situation had its


limitations. It was too hard to keep track of who
lived/who died. My work was getting too messy and I
could not edit/fix errors easily.

Phase 2: Think linear, use Excel (Brute force)


I started to think about the round table in a more linear way imagining that
the seats were numbered. I still did not know which knight the king would
pick. The king could pick a knight seated at seat 1or 2 or 7, this situation
was still too random for me to start to see
patterns.

Deepa Bharath
7/6/14

The only pattern that emerged was: Sitting in the odd numbered chairs
meant you had a greater chance of survival.
Phase 3: Changing the constraints of the problem, deciding the king
always picks the knight seated at seat 1 to live and always moves
clockwise around the table (or More Excel Plug and Play).

Deepa Bharath
7/6/14

A pattern that emerged from this process


was (see table):

I also noticed a repeating pattern in the


survivor seats: 1; 1,3; 1,3,5,7;
1,3,5,7,9,11
Phase 3: Phone a Friend
(learning from Helen
&Yvonne)
When meeting with Yvonne
and Helen, we asked the question, So when does the knight seated at seat
1 survive?
1, 2, 4, 8will the next one be 16?
This was Helens quick model/draft this really influenced my thinking
because it made me think that knowing when seat 1 survives might help
think about the others in relationship to 1. I did notice that if there were 14
knights, according to this model, knight 1 would survive. According to the
number sequence, 1 would survive if there were 16 knights. There seemed
to be a contradiction.
Phase 4: Testing the pattern/model

Deepa Bharath
7/6/14

Using Helens model

Say there are 18 knights. This is what I would do. Remove as many
powers of 2 as I can from the total number of knights. 2x2x2x2=16.
That would be seat 1. 18-16=2. I have to count off two odd seats and
sit, so thats seat 5.
If there are 32 knights, 2x2x2x2x2 = 32, so sit in seat 1.
If there were 60 knights, 60-32 =28. So, I would skip 28 odd numbers
from 1 or skip 28x2=56 numbers from seat 1 (for every odd number,
there is an even number to skip as well). I would sit at seat 57.

Phased Out: What did I learn? New Explorations?


I have a new appreciation for Algebra, which until now did not seem to
represent a story or situation. I think algebra involves trying to study a
5

Deepa Bharath
7/6/14

situation that has many possibilities and outcomes, finding patterns in the
different possibilities/outcomes and then discovering/inventing a
generalization that makes it easy to predict the outcome in a particular
case. As with the other problems in Integrated I, playing around with
organization of numbers helps us discover patterns. I appreciate the
unhurried pace of the class and the time we get to sit with these problems. I
wish my students had the luxury of time to sit with and play around with
math. I am also thankful for the balance between independent thinking and
collaboration. As a slow thinker, I like having a little time to myself before I
need to engage in meaningful conversation. Collaboration allowed us to
explore multiple ways of approaching the problem and to look for patterns
among different ways to organize data. Yvonne, Helen and I realized the
importance of checking a conjecture before moving towards a
generalization.
I wonder if there is an easier way to find how many powers of 2 are
contained in a number. Marvin, are you going to TELL us?

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