You are a brick wall builder in an earthquake prone area. You need to discover a new way to build the strongest wall possible using bricks (dominoes).
Prior research by engineers determined that a wall made of these bricks has the most strength if there are no fault lines.
Here is an example of a brick wall with fault lines. You can see that there are two lines (black lines) that go through the wall uninterrupted - fault lines.
Problem
Find a brick pattern without any fault lines. This means that every grid line (that is, both horizontal and vertical) of the rectangle intersects at least one domino.
Build a wall that is at least five dominoes high, using as many dominoes necessary for each layer of the wall to eliminate fault lines.
Findings and Conclusions
What system did you use to design the wall?
Describe how you found your pattern (use pictures if necessary).
Extension
Is your design unique or are there other patterns to the solve the problem?
Adapted from The Math Forum
Resources
12 Tips for Solving Word Problems
An Interactive Math Website for Problem Solving
Math Around the Clock Problem Solving
Math Problem Solving - Seven Bridges
Tags: critical thinking, geometry, math problem solving, math reasoning skills, science problem solving
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