# Think of a Number

## Ten students think of a number then perform various operations on that number. You have to find what the original numbers were.

##### Level 1Level 2Level 3DescriptionHelpAlgebra

This is level 1: Whole number THOAN problems. You can earn a trophy if you get at least 7 questions correct.

 $$\times 2$$$$+6$$$$28$$Antonio says:'I think of a number. I double my number and add 6 the answer is 28'What number was Antonio first thinking of? Working: Richard says:'I am also thinking of a number. If I multiply my number by 2 and add 6 the answer is 36'What number was Richard first thinking of? Working: Miquel says:'I think of a number. I multiply my number by 3 and add 2 the answer is 50'What number was Miquel first thinking of? Working: Colin says:'Can you guess what number I am thinking of if when I multiply it by 6 and add 4 the answer is 94?'What number was Colin first thinking of? Working: Cody says:'If I divide my number by 5 and add 5 the answer is 23'What number was Cody first thinking of? Working: Alejandro says:'If I multiply my number by 2 then add 3 then add 3 then add 6 the answer is 38'What number was Alejandro first thinking of? Working: Caden says:'I am thinking of my favourite number. If I add 6 to my number then divide the result by 2, the answer is 17'What number was Caden first thinking of? Working: Blake says:'My plan was to add 3 to my number then multiply the result by 5. Then I multiplied the result by 3 and finally subtracted 5. The answer is 70'What number was Blake first thinking of? Working: Carson says:'I decided to add 3 to my number then multiply the result by 3, After that I subtracted 4 then doubled the result. The answer is 46'What number was Carson first thinking of? Working: Emily says:'If I multiply my number by 6 and subtract 2 then multiply the result by 6, the answer is 2 less than 134'What number was Emily first thinking of? Working:
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This is Think of a Number level 1. You can also try:
Level 2 Level 3

## Instructions

Try your best to answer the questions above. Type your answers into the boxes provided leaving no spaces. As you work through the exercise regularly click the "check" button. If you have any wrong answers, do your best to do corrections but if there is anything you don't understand, please ask your teacher for help.

When you have got all of the questions correct you may want to print out this page and paste it into your exercise book. If you keep your work in an ePortfolio you could take a screen shot of your answers and paste that into your Maths file.

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#### Four Colour Theorem

This mathematical activity involves colouring in! That makes a change. Using the paint bucket tool can you flood fill the regions so that no two adjacent regions are the same colour?

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## Go Maths

Learning and understanding Mathematics, at every level, requires learner engagement. Mathematics is not a spectator sport. Sometimes traditional teaching fails to actively involve students. One way to address the problem is through the use of interactive activities and this web site provides many of those. The Go Maths page is an alphabetical list of free activities designed for students in Secondary/High school.

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## Teachers

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## Description of Levels

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Level 1 - Whole number THOAN problems

Level 2 - Decimal THOAN problems

Level 3 - Negative decimal THOAN problems

Answers to this exercise are available lower down this page when you are logged in to your Transum account. If you don’t yet have a Transum subscription one can be very quickly set up if you are a teacher, tutor or parent.

## Example

Daniel says 'If I double my number and add 6 the answer is 30'

### Method 1 - Work backwards

Start at the end of the sentence with the answer 30 and undo all of the operations Daniel performed on his number in reverse order.

30 minus 6 then divide by two

The number Daniel was thinking about was 12

### Method 2 - Form and solve an equation

Let the number that Daniel is first thinking of be n.

2n + 6 = 30

Subtract 6 from both sides

2n = 24

Divide both sides by 2

n = 12

The number Daniel was thinking about was 12

Don't wait until you have finished the exercise before you click on the 'Check' button. Click it often as you work through the questions to see if you are answering them correctly. You can double-click the 'Check' button to make it float at the bottom of your screen.

Answers to this exercise are available lower down this page when you are logged in to your Transum account. If you don’t yet have a Transum subscription one can be very quickly set up if you are a teacher, tutor or parent.

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