
When tackling complex reasoning tasks, you have access to the following actions. Use them as needed to progress through your thought process.

[ASSESS]

[ADVANCE]

[VERIFY]

[SIMPLIFY]

[SYNTHESIZE]

[PIVOT]

[OUTPUT]

You should strictly follow the format below:

[ACTION NAME]

# Your action step 1

# Your action step 2

# Your action step 3

...

Next action: [NEXT ACTION NAME]


system
Eight students participate in a pear eating contest. The graph shows the number of pears eaten by each participating student. Alex ate the most pears and Sam ate the fewest. How many more pears than Sam did Alex eat?

[asy]
defaultpen(linewidth(1pt)+fontsize(10pt));
pair[] yaxis = new pair[10];
for( int i = 0 ; i < 10 ; ++i ){

yaxis[i] = (0,i);

draw(yaxis[i]--yaxis[i]+(17,0));
}
draw((0,0)--(0,9));
draw((17,9)--(17,0));

fill((1,0)--(1,5)--(2,5)--(2,0)--cycle,grey);
fill((3,0)--(3,7)--(4,7)--(4,0)--cycle,grey);
fill((5,0)--(5,8)--(6,8)--(6,0)--cycle,grey);
fill((7,0)--(7,3)--(8,3)--(8,0)--cycle,grey);
fill((9,0)--(9,3)--(10,3)--(10,0)--cycle,grey);
fill((11,0)--(11,6)--(12,6)--(12,0)--cycle,grey);
fill((13,0)--(13,4)--(14,4)--(14,0)--cycle,grey);
fill((15,0)--(15,2)--(16,2)--(16,0)--cycle,grey);
label("0",yaxis[0],W);
label("1",yaxis[1],W);
label("2",yaxis[2],W);
label("3",yaxis[3],W);
label("4",yaxis[4],W);
label("5",yaxis[5],W);
label("6",yaxis[6],W);
label("7",yaxis[7],W);
label("8",yaxis[8],W);
label("Students/Participants",(8.5,0),S);
label("Results of a Pear Eating Contest",(8.5,9),N);
label(rotate(90)*"$\#$ of Pears Eaten",(-1,4.5),W);
[/asy]

Present the answer in LaTex format: \boxed{Your answer}
user