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Put Out the Flags
Age 11 to 14
Challenge Level 
Why do this problem?
This problem gives practice in calculating with percentages. It can be approached by trial and improvement but the equivalence between fractions and percentages is very useful.Key questions
What fraction is $50$%? and $35$%?
What would be a sensible number to try first?
Do you think they will not have a whole number of flags?
Tim could have $100$ flags but could he have less than $100$
flags?
If $50$% of Tim's flags are blue, what does this tell you
about the number of flags Tim must have?
As $35$% of Tim'??s flags are red, what does
this tell you about the number of flags Tim must have?
Possible extension
Learners could devise and solve a second part to the question, similar to that one in the problem.Possible support
Suggest working with counters or drawing the flags starting with a suitable arbitrary number and working by trial and improvement.You may also like
Mathland Election
A political commentator summed up an election result. Given that there were just four candidates and that the figures quoted were exact find the number of votes polled for each candidate.
Matching Fractions, Decimals and Percentages
Can you match pairs of fractions, decimals and percentages, and beat your previous scores?
