Help please!

[Jess]

Can anyone explain how to work out the following?

6 lollies and 3 ice-creams cost £8.52
3 ice-creams and 6 drinks cost £9.24
What would the cost of 1 lolly, 1 ice-cream and 1 drink be?

I know there must be a method (we're thinking algebra?) but can't work out what it is

Thanks a lot

[dadofkent]

Can anyone explain how to work out the following?

6 lollies and 3 ice-creams cost £8.52
3 ice-creams and 6 drinks cost £9.24
What would the cost of 1 lolly, 1 ice-cream and 1 drink be?

I know there must be a method (we're thinking algebra?) but can't work out what it is

Thanks a lot

6 lollies 6 ice-creams 6 drinks costs £17-76

1 of each is 1/6 the total.

£2-96 if my mental arithmetic is correct.


Edited. Sorry divided by 3.

[Guest55]

No algebra needed just look carefuly at the numbers:

If you add 6 lollies and 3 ice creams to 3 ice creams and 6 drinksyou get 6 of each cost £17.76

So dividing by six gives us the cost of one of each ie £2.96.

This is a case of where children 'taught' to use algebra automatically fall over.

[Jess]

Thank you both. I'd actually misunderstood the question and assumed it meant you had to find the cost of each item, not the total for one of each. Hence why I thought it must be algebra (but I couldn't get it to work-never was my strong point!)

[perplexed]

It's a really good question for testing mathematical reasoning. However it would be better worded to avoid the ambiguity Jess points out if it said "What is the TOTAL cost of 1 lolly, 1 ice cream and 1 drink".

Questions do not seem to be worded half as well as in "my day". It's as if a stage in the testing of questions is frequently being missed out. You even see ambiguous GCSE questions.

[jah]

It looks like it should be a simultaneous equation question, but there are 3 unknowns and only 2 equations - so there is insufficient information to work out the separate values.

As I recall simultaneous equations used to be 2nd year at secondary school in the 1970s (year - so would not expect year 6 children to be able to do them unless the curriculum has changed drastically. Perhaps a Maths teacher could say when simultaneous equations get taught now?

[Guest55]

Depends what you mean! 'Proper simultaneous equations are level 7/8 so would expect them to be taught in Y8 or Y9 - at GCSE they can have one linear and one quadratic which make them harder!