Two Numbers

A Maths Starter of The Day

Find two numbers whose sum is 15 and product is 50

  

Find two numbers whose sum is 23 and product is 120

  

Find two numbers whose sum is 21.5 and product is 110.5

  

 

 

 

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Topics: Starter | Arithmetic | Number Patterns | Simultaneous Equations

  • Mr Jankowski, Haydock Sports College
  • Tuesday, November 11, 2008
  • "Very nice as it can be used to lead into factorising quadratics."
  • Matt Robey, Brighton Hill School
  • Wednesday, December 03, 2008
  • "This was really easy. I got the last one on the first guess!"
  • Chris And Phillip, Swansea
  • Thursday, December 03, 2009
  • "The first question is really easy and can be spotted quite quickly.
    The third question always has to be an even number multiplied by a number ending in 0.5
    chow."
  • Mr Spanion, Ejs
  • Wednesday, December 23, 2009
  • "I thought it was brilliant."
  • Mr M Shepherd, St Lawrence Academy, Scunthorpe
  • Friday, December 09, 2011
  • "Easiest way to solve these we found was to double the "sum" number. This means that both the two original numbers have doubled so we need to multiply the product number by 4. This gave us all whole numbers to deal with. Once solved, half both the numbers.
    (Prime factor breakdown is the best way to look at combinations systematically if needed to, although most of year 8 relied on trial and error to find the abswer once they'd found the whole numbers)."

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This starter has scored a mean of 3.5 out of 5 based on 45 votes.

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Answers

Find two numbers whose sum is 15 and product is 50

5   and  10

Find two numbers whose sum is 23 and product is 120

8   and  15

Find two numbers whose sum is 21.5 and product is 110.5

13   and  8.5

 

Note to teacher: Doing this activity once with a class helps students develop strategies. It is only when they do this activity a second time that they will have the opportunity to practise those strategies. That is when the learning is consolidated. Click the button above to regenerate another version of this starter from random numbers.