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Break a word problem into steps

What this lesson is about

Turn a paragraph into a list of steps, each with one thing to work out and one thing to check.

Your daughter brings a sum about two pipes filling a tank and asks you to start solving it. What comes before the working?

Why this matters

An IIT course on problem solving begins with the same idea: write the ordered steps before any working. The list is what makes a skipped step visible.

You can turn a word problem into numbered steps and say which step an answer skipped.

An IIT course on problem solving begins with the same idea: write the ordered steps before any working. The list is what makes a skipped step visible.

Number the steps before touching a number: given, asked, and what lies between.
One step, one unknown, and one way to check that step on its own.
The step list is what catches an answer to a question nobody asked.

Task

One pipe fills a tank in six hours, another in four. How long do both take together?

Weak approach Writing down what is given and what is asked, then adding six and four for ten hours. The middle, where each pipe's hourly share is found, was never a step.

Stronger approach Step one: the part each pipe fills in an hour. Step two: add the two parts. Step three: turn that part back into hours.

Why the stronger approach works The weak answer added the wrong quantity. The step list names what has to be found before anything is added.

Try a changed situation You are arranging a wedding meal for a hall you have not measured, with a budget set by your uncle. How do you plan it?

Make something yourself Take one word problem from a school textbook. Write your own step list, then an assistant's answer to it, then say which of your steps the answer skipped.

Lesson 7 of 9 on Reasoning and maths for AI worknextChance, and what a model is guessingPart 3 ends in a work sample you can send

Read the primary or official source: NPTEL · Problem Solving through Programming in C, IIT Kharagpur