The Mathematical Association

Primary Mathematics Challenge

Bonus Paper
Answers and Notes February 2013
These notes provide a brief look at how the problems can be solved. There are
sometimes many ways of approaching problems - not all can be given here.
Suggestions for further work based on some of these problems are also provided.
P1 A 0.00001 This is the longest number but the smallest in value.

P2 C 15 30 sec is one-tenth of 5 min so one-tenth of the heads will be stitched on.

1 B £1.60 Two 7½ minutes make up 15 minutes, so in one hour I have to pay

8 times 20p = £1.60.

2 E 12 Cutting off a small triangle adds one extra side to each of the six
sides of the hexagon. So after cutting off the six small triangles
there will be 12 sides.

3 A 55 Pupils could add up the ten numbers directly. Or add the first and
the last to make 11, the second and the second to last to make
another 11 and so on, getting five groups totalling 11 each. The
sum of the ten numbers is therefore 5 × 11 = 55.

4 E 120 Four circuits of the track make 1km so 120 circuits make 30km.

5 C 40cm2 Adding the diagonals to the smaller square shows that the area of
the larger square is twice the area of the smaller square.

6 A 1/8 Mr Oak uses ‘solid’ 1 - (½ + ¼ + ⅛) = ⅛ of the time. Pupils could

add the fractions in the bracket using equivalent fractions, then
subtract from 1.

7 A Monday June has 30 days (4 × 7 + 2) so the day of the week moves on two
days between June and July.

8 C 1800 Pupils might calculate the volumes of the two suitcases

(18 000cm3 and 54 000cm3) and see that the volume of the larger
is three times to volume of the smaller suitcase. So the number of
sprouts will be 3 × 600 = 1800. But pupils might see that, in
effect, one side has been doubled (to make 1200 sprouts) and
 then multiplied by 1.5 to make 1800 sprouts.

9 B 13 The two-digit primes less than 20 are 11, 13, 17 and 19.
Reversing the digits gives 11, 31, 71 and 91. The only pair to give
403 when multiplied is 13 and 31.

10 A Aled Aled is stretched by 5cm. Bertie, Daisy and Ethan are stretched by
only 3cm, so rule them out. That leaves just Aled and Carmen.
Carmen is taller than Aled and so her stretch is proportionally
smaller.

11 C 99 There are palindromic numbers before the year 3000, so let us

start with a 2. The number must end with a two, and the two
middle numbers must be as low as possible and the same. The
year
2002 has passed, but 2112 has not. 2112 – 2013 = 99 years.

12 A 4.5m2 If the diagram is increased to make two squares, the difference in

areas is 9m2. We need half that difference giving 4.5m2.

13 D 20 In a 24 day period, one foot needs 12 socks and the other needs 8
socks. The total is 20 socks.

14 B 2 The second to last digit is always 2. For example 53 is 125. When

multiplying this by 5, we see that is it inevitable that the second to
last digit remains 2. Try repeated multiplication of 5 on a
calculator.

15 D 12 The minute hand takes one hour per revolution; the hour hand
takes twelve hours. So the minute hand goes round 12 times faster
than the hour hand.

16 D 1 Adding the first three equations gives a + b + c + d + e + f = 6.

Comparison with the fourth equation gives a = 1.

17 E 4199The final digit of the answer will be the same as the final digit to
3 × 7 × 9 which is 9. So the four-digit number is 4199.

18 B 89p It isn’t necessary to calculate the price of each cake and doughnut.
Subtracting the two ‘sentences’ tells us that three cakes and one
doughnut will cost £2.06 – £1.17 = 89p.
In fact, cakes cost 25p each and doughnuts cost 14p each.

19 D 68 After the first three numbers, each number is the sum of the
previous three numbers. So the next number is 11 + 20 + 37 = 68.
20 E 8 Pupils might start by choosing values for x and calculate how long
Mr Urly worked. It turns out that whatever value is chosen for x,
the answer is always 8.
By algebra, we calculate that, in the morning he worked
12 - (x + 2) = 10 - x hours. In the afternoon he worked
x - 2 hours. The total is (10 - x) + (x - 2) and the xs cancel out to
give 8 hours.

21 B 18 Working from the point on the ground on the left, every 4m along
gives 2m in height. The distance along the ground is 36m, so the
height of the tower is 9 × 2 = 18m.
Alternatively, by ratio, h/36 = 2/4 giving h = 18.

22 C 1 : 4 : 15 Subtracting living costs gives the figures for other expenses as

£4000, £16 000 and £60 000. These are in a ratio of 4 : 16 : 60.
That is 1 : 4 : 15 .

23 D 2160 In 30 hours the snail travels one mile. In this time the cheetah
travels 72 × 30 = 2160 miles. So the cheetah is travelling 2160
times faster than the snail.

24 A 26 a must be 9 giving 7 × 6 = 3 ‘carry’ 6. 6a ×

Multiplying 7 by 6 adding the carried 6 b7
gives 48 so c = 4. c83
Write down the 0. 8 × 9 is 72 so b = 8. d520
6003
This gives d = 5. The total of the four
numbers is 9 + 8 + 4 + 5 = 26.

25 B £10 There are three winning scores greater than ten: 11, 11 and 12
(draw the 6 by 6 grid of outcomes when two die are thrown).
So, in 36 games, the player pays out £36 and receives £30,
losing £6 on average. In 12 games she would therefore expect to
lose £2. And in 60 games would therefore expect to lose £10.

Some possibilities for further problems

2 At the end of Q2, the polygon has 12 edges. If the process was repeated, there would
be 24 edges. And if this carried indefinitely, how many edges would there be and
approximately what would the shape of the polygon now look like?

3 Here are some similar problems:

a) 10 + 11 + 12 + 13 + 14 + 15 + 16 + 17 + 18 + 19
b) 23 + 24 + 25 + 26 + 27 + 28 + 29 + 30 + 31 + 32
c) 10 + 12 + 14 + 16 + 18 + 20 + 22 + 24 + 26 + 28
d) 35 + 38 + 41 + 44 + 47 + 50 + 53 + 56 + 59 + 62
6 The fractions in this problem provide an easy insight into the situation in which the
sum of an infinite number of numbers is finite. In this case, adding more of these
fractions will only get closer to the number 2.
Pupils might consider if the sum can actually reach 2; if the sum did continue for
ever, would it reach 2?
There are other sums which, if continued for ever, would reach a finite number:
1/3 + 1/9 + 1/27 + 1/81 + + + .
Pupils might instigate what happens in this case: 1 + 1/2 + 1/3 + 1/4 + 1/5 ... .

14 Pupils can investigate what happens when other numbers are raised to different
powers. What rules can they discover with the first digits, second digits etc?

17 In Q17, three numbers are used. Suppose the code used only two prime numbers.
Can pupils find them for these numbers? 143 (11 x 13), 221 (13 x 17), 2773
(47 x 59). It does get difficult very quickly!

18 Here are more simultaneous equations. One pair is impossible to solve!

a) 4c + 3d = 24 and 3c + 3d = 21 b) 6c + 5d = 60 and 3c + 2d = 27
c) 6c + 4d = 38 and 3c + 2d = 19

21 Here are two easy similar triangles. How long is the side marked x?

4cm
6cm 8cm

x cm

22 The gap between top and bottom earners in our country is still growing. Suppose the
three people in this question were all given a 5% pay rise. How much increase in
pay
would they get? Can your pupils find a way of giving pay increases which they think
is fair?

25 Expectation is the topic here. It is the expected loss and may not be the actual loss.
Some games have an expectation of zero – break even. Betting on heads of tails for
a
balanced die has a zero expectation. Can your pupils design any other games with
zero expectation?
Some games such as slot machines have an expectation fixed by law. Others, such as
roulette are fixed by their design. In these games there are many losers but some
people manage to win.
The national lottery has a negative expectation, and most people lose.
Why do some people think gambling is bad?
Expectation is a mathematical idea which has uses apart from gambling, and is an
important topic in probability.