Primary School maths poser!

[Guffy]

Really struggling with a Primary School Maths poser. This is part of a Scot-Maths Mathematical challenge, but i just want to know how to work the darn thing out!!

From his home (H) , a travelling salesman has to make 12 deliveries, 4 to each of the towns A,B and C as shown on the diagram. For his travel he gets a mileage allowance of 50p per mile. He claims for 4 return journeys from home, to each of the towns A,B and C. But he actually made the deliveries on a total of 4 trips, each trip going from to H to A to B to A to C to A and back to H.

If, by his dishonest claim, he made an additional £160, how far is it from H to A ?

[Arese]

Yup, I think so. Or eleventy-twenty-twelve.

Edited by Arese on Thursday 1st October 12:06

[sonic_2k_uk]

£0.5/mile claimed
He did 4 trips, claimed 12 for an additional £160.

He made 8 H-A trips but claimed to have made 24 = an additional 16 A-H/H-A trips.

160/16 = £10 per A-H/H-A trip.
10/0.5 = 20 miles for each A-H/H-A trip.

so, the distance between A and H is 20 miles?

[AndyAudi]

0.5x (8AH+(8AB+8AH)+(8AC+8AH))=160+0.5x(8AH+8AB+8AC+8AH)
4AH+4AB+4AH+4AC+4AH = 160 + 4AH+4AB+4AC+4AH
16AH+4AB+4AC = 160+ 8AH+4AB+4AC
Therefore 8AH = 160
AH = 20
Distance between H to A = 20miles

ETA Curses, beaten to it

Edited by AndyAudi on Thursday 1st October 12:18

[sonic_2k_uk]

AndyAudi said:

ETA Curses, beaten to it

[f-fuxake]

Tuesday?

[AndyAudi]

sonic_2k_uk said:

AndyAudi said:

ETA Curses, beaten to it

I do like you logic, and am ashamed I didn't think of it rather than going for my approach.

[rocksteadyeddie]

I thought that this was going to be a picture of Mr Watkinson dressed in a leather pouch a la Alan Partridge.

Very dissapointed

[Guffy]

AndyAudi said:

sonic_2k_uk said:

AndyAudi said:

ETA Curses, beaten to it

I do like you logic, and am ashamed I didn't think of it rather than going for my approach.

Thanks Guys. I was the class thickie during maths, although i don't remember getting posers like that at primary school.

[Deva Link]

Guffy said:

Really struggling with a Primary School Maths poser.

....

If, by his dishonest claim, he made an additional £160,

I just love the thought that primary school kids are being taught about cheating expenses, and making sure that your claim stands up to scrutiny.

[Fer]

MX-5, no wait, kick her back doors in.

Or is it OXO Tower?

There, I think that covers all the standard answers, unless we are allowed to mention the remapped 330d?

[RichBurley]

I refuse to accept that this is a primary school maths question. Primary only goes up to key stage 5 as far as I'm aware...

[AndyAudi]

IL_JDM said:

Edit: Why are you all saying he did the A/H route 8 times?

Edited by IL_JDM on Thursday 1st October 12:31

4 Round Trips = 4 x HtoA & 4 x AtoH (which we are assuming are the same distance) hence 8 times

[Dracoro]

I don't think it's a primary school question either.

I do think that's it's a politicians entry exam question

[AndyAudi]

Where did you get the 6 times ?

& £160 is not 80 x £0.5

IL_JDM said:

He did the journey of A-H/H-A twice, rather than the 6 times he stated.

If Those additional 4 journey's were £160, that would be 80 miles @ £0.5 per mile.

80/4 = 20

Edited by IL_JDM on Thursday 1st October 12:31[/footnote]

Edited by AndyAudi on Thursday 1st October 13:16

[DrTre]

IL_JDM said:

*face palm*. Somehow having completely read the question wrong and getting my maths wrong, I still got the right answer.

Liar. You said 40. Before your extensive edit.

ETA a smiley thing

Edited by DrTre on Thursday 1st October 13:19

[sonic_2k_uk]

IL_JDM said:

*face palm*. Somehow having completely read the question wrong and getting my maths wrong, I still got the right answer.

I cant believe that was a primary school question either, if it is though, whats all this bollacks about kids having easier exams these days!?

[ninja-lewis]

sonic_2k_uk said:

IL_JDM said:

*face palm*. Somehow having completely read the question wrong and getting my maths wrong, I still got the right answer.

I cant believe that was a primary school question either, if it is though, whats all this bollacks about kids having easier exams these days!?

It's not an exam or part of the curriculum; it's a problem solving competition by the Scottish Maths Council with separate Primary (P7), Junior (S1-2), Middle (S3-4) and Senior (S5-6) divisons. You get two sets of 5 problems to solve and get a certificate if you're in the top x% nationally.

The UK Mathematical Trust run a similar competition across the UK beginning at the Junior level (S2 and below, although we sat it in P7). It's 25 Multiple Choice questions sat under full exam conditions in 1 hour, without a calculator and in the later divisons you start losing marks when you get it wrong. (a friend ended up with a negative score when he just guessed the answers!)

They're tough but it shouldn't be beyond the top Maths sets at the relevant level.

[Gareth350]

Is the answer, the great wall of China?

[HOGEPH]

Luckily, the travelling salesman was also an MP, so after being found out, issuing a denial, contritely admitting it was an "administrative error", and offering to pay back half, no further action was taken, and he remained in his post.


HOW SOON WE FORGET!