1. Name: Date:
Hexagonal Pencil Cup
Directions: After studying the empty hexagonal pencil cup, use your
number sense to guess how many pencils could fit into the cup so there
is zero space left (assume all pencils will be perpendicular to the table).
Record your “empty cup” guess in the table below. After each minute
Mr. Z will pause the video and allow you to discuss and adjust your
guess if necessary.
# of pencils guessed
Empty Cup
After One Box
After Two Boxes
After Three Boxes
After Four Boxes
1) How far off was your “empty cup” cup guess to the actual number
of pencils that fit?
2) What information could Mr. Z have given to help your group have
a more accurate guess?
3) Write an equation to describe the pencils filling the cup. Assume
you start with an empty cup. What are your two variables?
Identify one variable as the independent and one as the
dependent.
a) If you graphed this event, what would the slope of the
line be?
b) Tomorrow assume you start the same event with one
box already filled in the cup, what is your new linear
equation? How did the equation change? Why?