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A Little Light Thinking

Stage: 4 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:1

A Little Light Thinking

The rules for turning on the lights of Charlie's Delightful Machine are all given by linear sequences (like those found in Shifting Times Tables).

In the first problem, you found efficient strategies for working out the rules controlling each light.

Now try to make two lights light up at once.






 

Why do this problem?

This problem encourages students to think about the properties of numbers. It could be used to consolidate work on linear sequences. The interactivity encourages learners to begin the problem experimentally before working more theoretically as they engage with the main ideas.
 

Possible approach


This problem follows on from Charlie's Delightful Machine, so we assume students have a strategy for determining the rule to switch individual lights on.

"Did anyone find examples where two or more lights switched on simultaneously?"
"Our challenge now is to determine how to turn on two lights (or more) simultaneously, if we know the rules for each individual light."

If computers are available, students could work in pairs determining the rules for individual lights, then finding the rule for switching on pairs of lights simultaneously. Remind them of the importance of recording their findings to share with the class.

If computers are not available, this worksheet contains the rules for a collection of sequences that students could explore, searching for examples where two sequences have numbers in common.
 
One way they could record their work is by creating a table with sequence rules along the top and down the side, and indicating with a tick or a cross in each cell whether both lights could light up simultaneously. When appropriate, they could also indicate numbers which successfully switch on both lights.

Remind the class that the task is not simply to find examples, but to find a way of determining, by just looking at the sequence rules, whether or not a pair of lights will ever light up simultaneously.

When trying to produce convincing arguments, ideas from the problem Stars might be useful.

Leave some time for the class to come together to share examples of rules where more than one light could be switched on simultaneously, and examples where it was impossible, together with their reasoning.

Key questions

What is true about any pair of rules where it is not possible to light up both lights?

If two sequences are described by the rules $an+b$ and $cn+d$, can you explain the conditions for determining whether the lights will ever switch on together?
 

Possible extension

Some students may wish to use ideas of modular arithmetic to prove their findings; reading this article first may help.
 

Possible support

The problem Shifting Times Tables offers an introductory challenge for exploring linear sequences.

In the Hint there is a version of the interactivity with just two lights which students might find more accessible.

Students could use a 100 square (Word, pdf) as a visual way to record sequences and see where (if) they coincide.
 

The NRICH Project aims to enrich the mathematical experiences of all learners. To support this aim, members of the NRICH team work in a wide range of capacities, including providing professional development for teachers wishing to embed rich mathematical tasks into everyday classroom practice. More information on many of our other activities can be found here.
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NRICH is part of the family of activities in the Millennium Mathematics Project.