Corey Camel

Corey Camel Problem Statement: Corey the Camel has a small banana grove in the desert, her harvest this year was 3,000 bananas. The market where Corey sells her bananas is 1,000 miles away. Corey has to walk to the market to sell her bananas, for each mile Corey walks, she eats one banana. Corey can only carry 1,000 bananas at a time. In this POW the goal is to find the number of bananas that Corey can get to the market. Process: To find the answer to this POW I did the mini POW, as suggested. I used the same process for POW 13, as I did for the mini POW.

The process is as follows:

1. Corey starts the trip with 1,000 bananas.
2. She travels 200 miles, she’s left with 800 bananas. She stashes 600 bananas at a 200-mile point, keeping 200 the trip back.
3. Corey picks up another 1,000 bananas.
4.  She travels 200 miles, she has 800 left. She then picks up 200 from the bananas stashed. She now carries 1000 bananas and has 400 more stashed.
5. She travels an additional 333 1/3 miles, she’s left with 666 2/3 bananas, she stashes 333 1/3 there (533 1/3 mile point), she has 333 1/3 bananas left.
6. She then travels back 333 1/3 miles to a 200-mile point. She has no bananas left, so picks up 200 stashed (leaving 200 still at the 200-mile point), and travels back to the grove, 200 miles away.
7. She picks up another 1,000 bananas at the grove.
8. She travels to the 200-mile point, leaving her with 800 bananas, she picks up the remaining 200 stashed.
9. With 1,000 bananas, she travels 333 1/3 miles to 533 1/3 mile point, she is then left with 666 2/3 bananas.
10. She picks up all 333 1/3 that were stashed there
11. She’s back at 1000 bananas
12. She makes the remaining 466 2/3 mile trip, 1000-466 2/3 = 533 1/3 bananas left to sell at the market.

Solution:

• a. Corey the Camel will have 533 1/3 bananas to sell at the market.
• b. Yes, I do think that my solution is the best possible because if you try stashing fewer bananas at the 200-mile point, or traveling further before stashing bananas, you always fall short of the 533 1/3 bananas that this method gives you. 533 1/3 is the most possible bananas that Corey the Camel can get to the market.
• c. The problems are basically identical, just the mini POW uses smaller numbers. It’s easier to work with and helped a lot in finding the answer to the POW.

The answer is related, because you go basically the same steps, just with smaller amounts of bananas and miles. Evaluation: I definitely think that this POW was worthwhile; it made me think deeply about what the answer could be. I got a little frustrated for a moment because, at first glance, I would expect the answer to the POW to be 0 bananas, however, the more you look at it, you figure out multiple ways to solve it. The best part about this POW was it’s critical thinking factor, you really need to take into account many perspectives and ways to solve the problem.