Systems of Equations - The Basketball Problem – 2010

Activity:
• Show your work in a clear, organized manner
• Solve the Problem
• Bonus for solving it with different strategies
• Explain your thought process. How did you solve it? Explain anything that confused you and how you figured
it out. Are there any important mathematical connections you can make?

Mr. H’s fantastic basketball team sets a goal

to score at least twenty points and shoot less
than 10 shots in one quarter, from only two-
and three-point field goals. How many ways
can they meet their goal?
Solutions
2’s 3’s total shots total points
0 9 9 27
0 8 8 24
1 8 9 26
0 7 7 21
1 7 8 23
2 7 9 25
1 6 7 20
2 6 8 22
3 6 9 24
4 5 9 23
3 5 8 21
5 4 9 22
4 4 8 20
6 3 9 21
7 2 9 20

Counting the rows in the table, we can see that Mr. H’s team could meet their goal in 15 ways.

As a system of inequalities, the problem can be represented as follows:

2x + 3y ≥ 20
x + y < 10

The graph of which yields: From the graph we find the 15 solutions at the lattice
points highlighted below.
Three-Pointers, y
Three-Pointers, y

b
b b
b b b
b b b
b b
b b
b
b

Two Pointers, x Two Pointers, x

Twos
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
0 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19
2 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Threes

3 9 11 13 15 17 19 21
4 12 14 16 18 20 22
5 15 17 19 21 23
6 18 20 22 24
7 21 23 25
8 24 26
9 27

This table shows the number of points made from shooting 9 or fewer two- and three-point field goals. Notice that
there are only 15 values in the table greater than 20.

Any other strategies?