Example approach to a ‘word’ problem.

Peter decides to cover the floor of a room with a striped carpet. A shop sells this striped
carpet from a roll that is 3m wide at a price of £25 per metre length. His floor is rectangular
in shape with length 13m and width 8 m. The carpet is laid to ensure that the stripes on the
carpet are parallel to two of the sides of the room and lie in one direction only. Find the cost
of the cheapest way of covering the floor. How much cheaper is this than the other option?
Show all your working.

(a) What is the question asking us to find? (usually, but not always, found at the end
of the question). Give this value or thing a label.

The difference in price between the cheapest and more expensive option – call this D

(b) Highlight OR underline OR circle OR list all of the key information you need to
answer the question.

Carpet is 3m wide
Price is £25 per metre length
Area of the floor is 13m x 18m
Carpet must be laid in rows

(c) If you can, and if it helps, draw the problem

3m

OR

3m
 (a) List the calculations or ‘parts’ of the question you need to solve in order to answer
the whole question. Write it as an equation if you can, using your label from part
(a).

(1) The length of carpet needed to cover the floor if the carpet is parallel to the walls
which are 13m long
(2) The cost of rolling the carpet parallel to the walls which are 13m long – call this S
(3) The length of carpet needed to cover the floor if the carpet is parallel to the walls
which are 8m long
(4) The cost of rolling the carpet parallel to the walls which are 8m long – call this T

ANSWER:

C = S – T or T – S, depending which is larger.

To calculate (1): We know that each row of carpet is 3m wide. So how many times does
3m ‘fit’ into 8m? We can fit two whole rows, filling a space 6m wide and leaving 2m left
over, so we also need another row of carpet which will not be fully used – a total of 3
rows, each of 13m length.

To calculate (2): Carpet costs £25 for each metre length. In each row, we have 13m. So
each row costs £(13 x 25) = £325.
We have 3 rows (we still have to pay for the third even though we don’t pay for it) so this
is a total costs of £(3 x 325) = £975.
So S = £975.

To calculate (3): Again, we know that each row of carpet is 3m wide. So how many times
does 3m ‘fit’ into 13m? We can fit 4 whole rows, filling a space 12m wide and leaving 1m
left over, so – again - we also need another row of carpet which will not be fully used.
So here, we have a total of 5 rows, each of 8m length.

To calculate (4): In each row we have 8m. So each row of carpet costs £(8 x 25) = £200.
We have 5 of these rows (we are paying for the 5th, even though we aren’t using all of it),
so the total cost, T = £(5x200) = £1000.

SO: T > S, meaning S is the cheaper option, and C = T – S = £1000 - £975 = £25.