Allie Chazen

Locker Problem

What are perfect squares in this problem represent? Perfect
squares in this problem represent the locker number that was open and
how the work connects to perfect square. Example: 1, 4,9,16,25,36,49.
These numbers represent all the lockers that ended up being closed.
With those numbers you have a perfect square. Example: first locker is
opened, so 1x1=1. This would really be 1
2
.

Locker four it would be 2
2.

For locker 9 it would be 3

2
. The next one would be 4
2
, 5
2
, 6
2
and, 7
2
.
These are all called perfect squares.

How do we know which lockers were touched and by whom?
We know this by example: 9; you would do the least common multiples
of 9. So that would be 1, 3, and 9. For 1 you would say that is open, then
for 3, it is closed, and 9 which is open. By using that method, it will help
very easily.

How many lockers were open after 550 students went by? To
estimate that, I did 24 x 24 this is 576. 576 are above 550 students. I
then tried 23x23 which got is to 529. 529 lockers were opened after 550
went by.

How many lockers were closed after 550 students went by?
For that I did 550 students - 23 which got me to 527 lockers were closed
after 550 student went by.