Maths question : Sun Jan 06, 2013 10:18 pm
My 9 year old has got some homework based on the 12 days of Christmas. Most of the questions are straight forward. How many nests would be needed if all the birds needed one...etc. But the last question is difficult. I think too difficult for a child of his age.If all the pipers (11 of them) played continuously in 2 and a quarter hour shifts for 12 days, how many hours would each piper play for?
Now I know the answer is pipers 1-7 would play for 27 hours and pipers 8-11 would play for 24.75 hours but I can't see how to show the working out of it all.
12 days x 24 hours = 288 hours
288 hours ÷ 2.25 hour shifts = 128 shifts
128 shifts ÷ 11 pipers = 11.63636363..... Shifts
But that's not the final answer. How do we then show that pipers 1-7 play 12 shifts (27 hours) and the remaining pipers play 11 shifts (24.75 hours)?
I'm not trying to do my boys homework for him but I would like to steer him in the right direction with the method on it. My feeling is the question is way too hard for a 9 year old and it's not as difficult as its made out and perhaps they expect the answer to be 288 hours (12 days) divided by 11 pipers. But that's not what it says.