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Ordering Journeys

Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star
Primary curriculum
  • Problem
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Ordering Journeys

Ordering Journeys printable sheet

Here are the distances (as the crow flies) in kilometres from London to various cities in the world:
 

Abu Dhabi 5480

Barcelona 1139

Cape Town 9680

New Delhi 6718

Edmonton 6805

Florence 1209

Gothenburg 1039

Houston 7812

Istanbul 2501

Jerusalem 3611

Karachi 6314

Launceston 17425


Put these journeys in order according to the distances involved.

The map data in this activity was produced by OpenStreetMap contributors and is reproduced under a Creative Commons license. The map imagery was produced by Mapbox and OpenStreetMap contributors.

Why do this problem?

This challenge gives pupils experience of comparing and ordering large numbers.
 

Possible approach

Try to say as little as possible when introducing this task. When the group or class has finished it would be good to discuss the different approaches that pupils used.


Key questions

Tell me what you first thought would be a good way of doing this.
Tell me about any difficulties you encountered when solving this challenge.


Possible extension

Pupils could choose some other cities and investigate how far away from London they are, adding these journeys into their order. Pupils might like to first make a guess at where in the order they think the new journey will be placed before looking up the distance.

Possible support

Some pupils may need help with focusing on each particular map and the names that may be unusual for them.

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The NRICH Project aims to enrich the mathematical experiences of all learners. To support this aim, members of the NRICH team work in a wide range of capacities, including providing professional development for teachers wishing to embed rich mathematical tasks into everyday classroom practice.

NRICH is part of the family of activities in the Millennium Mathematics Project.

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