Challenge+Problem

For this project I took one of the Challenge Problems from Math 205 for Elementary and Middle School Teachers and used Microsoft Excel to display a different method of solving the problem. This was a problem from the very first unit in the class and dealt with spending money from one's paycheck. The problem was:

When receiving my paycheck, I immediately put 1/3 of it in my savings account. I spent 2/3 of the remaining money on a book I'd been waiting to read. Then, I spent 1/4 of the rest on chocolate. In the end, I had $4.50 left. How big was my paycheck? Explain how you know.

For this problem I originally had solved it using algebraic equations and guess and check. When I went to use it in Excel I approached it in a different way. I wanted to visually depict what was happening in the problem so I broke it up into steps and started by working backwards, the $4.50 first. I enjoy using Excel and had lots of prior experience, however I had never used colors and formatted the boxes for visually showing information. I have used graphs and tables before, but not formatted the boxes. I also learned how to add comments which was very cool. The two pictures show with and without the comments shown. Excel works wonders!