A Visual Approach to Solving Mixture Problems

Abstract

In the Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics (NCTM 1989), the 9–12 standards call for a shift from a curriculum dominated by memorization of isolated facts and procedures to one that emphasizes conceptual understandings, multiple representations and connections, mathematical modeling, and mathematical problem solving. One approach that affords opportunities for achieving these objectives is the use of diagrams and drawings. The familiar saying “A picture is worth a thousand words” could well be modified for mathematics to “A picture is worth a thousand numbers.” As an example of visual approaches in algebra, this article uses diagrams to solve mixture problems.