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Timing

Age 7 to 11
ShortChallenge Level Yellow starYellow star
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  1. Office On Time - As Katherine from the International School, Brunei says the answer depends on the bus driver's watch and whether the bus is on time! Good solutions came from Katherine; from Ben, from a large number of pupils at The Mount School, York; and from Barry, Eaton School, Norwich; James, Hethersett High School, Norwich; Kang Hong, Chinese High School, Singapore; and Steve, Bedlington High School, Northumberland.

    Only Tom will catch the bus to work. He will arrive at $7.42$ if he wants to get there $3$ minutes early. John will get there at $8.12$ if he wants to get there $3$ minutes early. This is because, say the exact time was $7.50$ by Tom's watch it would be $8.00$, but he thinks this is $5$ minutes slow, so he would believe the time was $8.05$. This gives him 15 minutes so if he wanted to arrive at the bus stop at $7.57$ by his watch, the actual time would be $7.57 - 15$ minutes $ = 7.42$. The same happens for John but in the opposite way therefore he arrives $15$ minutes later, at $8.12$. (Steve, Bedlington High School, Northumberland)

  2. Hawaii - Two days before the meeting he is 25 years old and next year he will be 28.

    3 calanders

    Well done Suzanne, Helen, Charis, Lyndsay, Nisha and Christiane from The Mount School York, and others from The Mount School and especially Christiane who did the time line. Well done also to Kang Hong from The Chinese High School, Singapore, Laura, Ipswich High School; James, Hethersettt High School, Norwich; Alan, Bedlington High School, Northumberland.


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Ten Green Bottles

Do you know the rhyme about ten green bottles hanging on a wall? If the first bottle fell at ten past five and the others fell down at 5 minute intervals, what time would the last bottle fall down?

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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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