Eric's 3 Skips

For this problem, I chose to draw a visual picture representation to help me assimilate a better understanding of the complete scenario that lies within this word problem. My drawing of the total amount of sheep also helped me approach this problem mathematically to get an accurate representation of just how many sheep were shorn before Eric got to the front. I began evaluating this problem where Eric himself stood, behind the 50-other sheep waiting to get to the front. My drawing helped me discover a pattern of movement in Eric’s skips. I drew 50 circles to illustrate the pattern movement and realized that for every two skips Eric takes, one of the sheep in the front of the line gets eliminated for they have already had their turn. So, while Eric is skipping two places in line he is actually moving up 3 places closer to the …show more content…
By the use of my drawing as well as the awareness of Eric’s three skips in line, I was able to form a mathematical approach that was justifiable to my illustration. The knowledge of Eric’s 3 skips helped me look at the numbers very closely. I applied the multiple of 3 sheep before Eric and divided it by different multiples of 3 in order to get the total number shorn before Eric. Since 50 is a composite number and not divisible by 3 this allowed me to use the divisibility test for 3 to configure the number divisible by 3 that was closest to 50. This then helped me round the total number of sheep up to 51 for 5+1=6; which indeed passes the divisibility test for 3 on account of 6 is divisible by 3. With that knowledge 51 divides into 3, 17 times. This mathematical approach exhibits the very same answer to my drawing as well as giving me a clearer understanding of the 17-sheep shorn before