Transum Software

Stable Scales

The scales are balanced. Can you work out the weight of the items on the scales? These pictures can be represented by linear equations.
Home Help Equations Algebra

The total weight of the items on the left dish is the same as the items on the right dish. Can you work out the weight of one item? Enter your answers in the boxes provided then click the 'Check' button to see if you are right. You can click the check button after each question if you wish. If you double-click the 'Check' button it will float!

Fruit Fruit Fruit Fruit

20

Fruit = Correct Wrong
Fruit Fruit Fruit Fruit Fruit Fruit Fruit

10

Fruit = Correct Wrong
Fruit Fruit Fruit Fruit Fruit Fruit

12

Fruit = Correct Wrong
Fruit Fruit Fruit

9

Fruit = Correct Wrong
Fruit Fruit Fruit

3

13

Fruit = Correct Wrong
Fruit Fruit Fruit Fruit Fruit Fruit Fruit Fruit

1

7

Fruit = Correct Wrong
Fruit Fruit Fruit Fruit Fruit Fruit Fruit

2

29

Fruit = Correct Wrong
Fruit Fruit Fruit Fruit Fruit Fruit Fruit Fruit

2

14

Fruit = Correct Wrong
Fruit Fruit Fruit Fruit Fruit Fruit Fruit Fruit Fruit

2

26

Fruit = Correct Wrong
Fruit Fruit Fruit Fruit Fruit Fruit Fruit Fruit

19

3

Fruit = Correct Wrong
Check

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.
Why am I learning this?

Mathematicians are not the people who find Maths easy; they are the people who enjoy how mystifying, puzzling and hard it is. Are you a mathematician?

Comment recorded on the 10 April 'Starter of the Day' page by Mike Sendrove, Salt Grammar School, UK.:

"A really useful set of resources - thanks. Is the collection available on CD? Are solutions available?"

Comment recorded on the 6 May 'Starter of the Day' page by Natalie, London:

"I am thankful for providing such wonderful starters. They are of immence help and the students enjoy them very much. These starters have saved my time and have made my lessons enjoyable."

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Featured Activity

Lemon Law

Lemon Law

A fascinating digit changing challenge. Change the numbers on the apples so that the number on the lemon is the given total. Can you figure out, by understanding place value, how this works?

Answers

There are answers to this exercise but they are available in this space to teachers, tutors and parents who have logged in to their Transum subscription on this computer.

A Transum subscription unlocks the answers to the online exercises, quizzes and puzzles. It also provides the teacher with access to quality external links on each of the Transum Topic pages and the facility to add to the collection themselves.

Subscribers can manage class lists, lesson plans and assessment data in the Class Admin application and have access to reports of the Transum Trophies earned by class members.

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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.

Maths Map

Are you looking for something specific? An exercise to supplement the topic you are studying at school at the moment perhaps. Navigate using our Maths Map to find exercises, puzzles and Maths lesson starters grouped by topic.

Teachers

If you found this activity useful don't forget to record it in your scheme of work or learning management system. The short URL, ready to be copied and pasted, is as follows:

Alternatively, if you use Google Classroom, all you have to do is click on the green icon below in order to add this activity to one of your classes.

It may be worth remembering that if Transum.org should go offline for whatever reason, there is a mirror site at Transum.info that contains most of the resources that are available here on Transum.org.

When planning to use technology in your lesson always have a plan B!

Ysgol Gymraeg Ifor Hael, Twitter

Friday, November 22, 2019

Do you have any comments? It is always useful to receive feedback and helps make this free resource even more useful for those learning Mathematics anywhere in the world. Click here to enter your comments.
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Example

Here is an example showing a good way to solve problems like these. It helps to think of the two sides of the balance as two sides of an equation. The equation will remain balanced only if you do the same thing (multiply, divide add or subtract) to both sides. Let x stand for the weight of one item.

5x + 3 = 3x + 15
Subtract 3 from both sides
5x = 3x + 12
Subtract 3x from both sides
2x = 12
Divide both sides by 2
x = 6

So the weight of the item is 6 units.

Close

Close

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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