Meadows or Malls Write Up

Julia Earley

In the Meadows or Malls unit problem, we utilized multiple types of math in order to find
different solutions to a problem. While the steps for solving this problem are laid out for us like a
baking recipe, why are we taking these steps? In other words, why do we need to put in the eggs or the
flour? What justifies it? To lay out the justification for this solution, I’ll go through the different topics
we learned step by step and how they contributed to the solving of our unit problem.

Cornerpoints
First, let's talk about the corner-point principle. The corner point principle is the flour to our
cake. It is what holds our unit problem together. When you have a linear equation problem with two
variables, the lines formed by the equations can be graphed on a plane. These lines intersect to create
“corner-points.” These corner-points correspond to the constraints. Anything that falls outside of these
corner points is outside of our feasible region, meaning that they do not satisfy all constraints of the
equation. This also holds true for problems with more than two variables. On a three variable system,
we can still have lines that intersect and form corner-points in a three dimensional space. It’s
impossible to imagine intersections physically on more than three planes, but these corner-points
corresponding to constraints still hold true. We used corner points while solving our unit problem to
determine all possible constraints, positivities, and possible solutions. Some examples of
classwork we did on this are: “Heavy Flying'' and “Programming Puzzles.” But, how do we even
solve linear equations with three variables?

Linear equations with two and three variables

Solving linear equations with two variables is simple. For example, (𝑥 − 2𝑦 = 2) and
(2𝑥 + 𝑦 = 9) We could simply set one of the variables as equal, such as x, by multiplying the entire
equation by 2 then subtracting each equation from each other to cancel out terms and isolate y. We
would then get a value for y, plug that back into one of our first equations, then solve for x. However,
solving linear equations with three variables is like the butter for our cake. Should we whip it or melt it
then gently stir? It’s difficult to understand at first, but when you get it down you feel like a master
baker! To start, we will remove one variable at a time until we are able to isolate a single value for a
variable then plug it back in to find the others. Personally, I believe the key to understanding this topic
is to take it slowly and just work piece by piece. Here’s an example:

3𝑥 + 𝑦 − 𝑧 = 2
𝑥 + 2𝑦 − 2𝑧 = –1
2𝑥 + 𝑦 + 𝑧 = 7
 3𝑥 + 𝑦 − 𝑧 = 2
− 2𝑥 + 𝑦 + 𝑧 = 7
= 𝑥 − 2𝑧 = –5

4𝑥 + 2𝑦 + 2𝑧 = 14
− 𝑥 + 2𝑦 − 2𝑧 = –1
= 3𝑥 + 4𝑧 = 15

3𝑥 − 6𝑧 = –15
− 3𝑥 + 4𝑧 = 15
= –10𝑧 = -30
𝑧=3

When you plug 𝑧 = 3 back into the other equations, you get 𝑥 = 1, 𝑦 = 2, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑧 = 3. Many
of the constraints in the unit problem have three variables, meaning they will need to be dealt
with when solving for possible solutions. This is why this concept was key to understanding. Some
examples of classwork we did on this are: “Grind it out” and “Elimination in Three Variables.”

Odd Solutions
There are situations where equations will turn out to be inconsistent meaning they have no
solutions, dependent meaning they have infinite solutions, or independent meaning they have one
solution. I think of this as eggshells in your batter– you don’t really want them in there because they
make the problem a bit more complicated. Here are some examples. (𝑥 + 1 = 5, 𝑥 + 2 = 5)
Inconsistent, (3𝑥 + 2𝑦 = 6, 6𝑥 + 4𝑦 = 12) Dependent, (3𝑥 + 2𝑦 = 6, 3𝑥 + 2𝑦 = 12)
Independent. To be honest, I understand the concepts of these topics but am not completely sure
where they fit into the unit problem. They may have come into place when We got rid of three
positivity constraints because they were redundant. This reduced the amount of equations we had
to calculate.

Matrices
This was my favorite part of the unit. This is the sugar to our cake, it makes everything sweeter and easier to
solve! In short, matrices are ways to represent information that could be organized in charts. For example, if we say that
Bob has three chickens and one pig, and Martha has six chickens and three pigs, we could represent that in a matrix that
would look like this:
Each row (across) represents Bob or Marth. The top two numbers are
bobs, and the bottom two are martha. The columns represent pigs or
chickens. We could manipulate this information by adding it to
another matrix, subtracting it from another matrix, or multiplying it. We can not divide matrices. You
can do all of these basic functions easily in a matrix calculator, which is one of the main tools I used to
solve this unit problem. Matrices are important to this project because they can represent large linear
equations with a large amount of variables. In our case, we had 6 variables– much too many to solve
out by hand using the strategies mentioned in a previous section. So, instead we convert this
information into three matrices to represent three parts of an equation.
First, we have the identity matrix. I think of this as binary code where 0 means no, not present,
and 1 means yes, present. Our next matrix is our variables. These are what we are assigning 0 or 1 to.
Lastly, we have a “solution matrix.” This is just what our binary times our variables multiply to. Since
we just have 6 variables, our identity matrix will be 6 columns wide, and 6 rows long because we need
a combination of 6 different equations to get a possible solution. For example, if we take the constraint
RD + A D + MD ≥ 300, we could write our identity matrix for that as [0 1 0 1 0 1] * [variables] = [300] .
It’s a bit confusing at first, but all you’re really doing is checking off 0 or 1 for Rr, Rd, Ar, Ad, Mr, Md,
in that order. Then, you are multiplying that identity matrix by the variable matrix to get your product
as what the constraint equals. You stack these on top of each other to get a 6x6 identity matrix * 6
variables = 6 products. As I said before, you can not divide matrices. This makes it a bit more
difficult to solve for what variables are. However, this is an easy fix with a matrix calculator. All you
need to do is find the multiplicative inverse of the coefficient matrix using a calculator function, then
multiply both sides of the equation by that inverse in order to 0 out your coefficient matrix and isolate
values for all variables. This is the most important part of the math for this project, as it’s how I
found all possible solutions to the unit problem.
Over all, solving large linear equations is just like baking a cake! Except… a cake that takes
months to learn how to bake. :)

Reflection
During the Meadows or Malls unit I really enjoyed learning about and working with matrices. I
had a small knowledge of how matrices worked from my quantum computing class, but was able to
learn many more uses and functions of them. While I didn’t have any issues with COVID during this
project, I did have issues with delegation of work for some of the projects. It was difficult for me to
complete a group's worth of work by myself, especially when I have other math related things to study
and work on at home. I’ve tried to become better at asserting myself when I have group mates that
don’t want to do any work, but I’ve run into problems with my group members just not understanding
the math for the project as well.
Around October, I distinctly remember attempting to solve one of the example problems on the
PSAT practice sheet. One of them was a simple linear equation with two variables– I had absolutely no
clue how to solve it. I asked for help and watched as it was solved out on a whiteboard but was still
confused. After this unit, I can proudly say that I'm very comfortable solving linear equations! I’ve
encountered a few of them on different practice tests and have been able to crush them easily. I'm pretty
proud of myself and the overall work I’ve done in this unit.