Introducing Algebra to Solve Problems

1. Jack has some sweets; Sam has 4 more sweets than Jack. Brodie has twice as many sweets as Sam.
Altogether, they have 56 sweets. How many sweets does each boy have?

2. A biscuit barrel has three types of biscuit in it. Each jam ring has a mass 5g more than the mass of
each lemon cream. Wafer sandwiches are twice as heavy as jam rings. There are 12 jam rings in the
barrel and 5 lemon creams and 32 biscuits altogether. The total mass of the biscuits in the barrel is
1056g. What is the mass of one of each type of biscuit?

3. Emily has some stickers. Grace has twice as many stickers as Emily. Laura has 12 more stickers
than Emily. In total they have 76 stickers. How many more stickers does Grace have than Laura?

4. Beri has some 20p pieces and some £1 coins. In total, she has 57 coins and £41.80. How many of
each coin does she have?

5. One of the parallel sides in a trapezium is 9cm. The other is 4cm longer than its height. The area of
the trapezium is 70 cm². Find the height of the trapezium.

6. Three number cards are placed, left to right, in order of size from smallest to largest. The mean of
the three numbers is 15. The number on the right is double the size of the number on the left. The
range of the three numbers is 10. What are the three numbers?

7. One week, Henry drives to work and back 5 times and to the supermarket and back 2 times. He
drives a total of 72 miles on these journeys. Another week, he drives to work and back 4 times and
to the supermarket and back 3 times. This week, he drives a total of 66 miles. What is the distance
to and from work and what is the distance to and from the supermarket?

8. In the diagram, what proportion of the area of the square is shaded?

Give your answer as a fully simplified fraction in terms of π.

9. Komal and Eric are decorating cakes. When Komal works for 4 hours and Eric for 9 hours, they
decorate 60 cakes. When Komal works for 6 hours and Eric works for 3 hours, they decorate 48
cakes. How many cakes per hour can each decorate?

10. A cylinder with radius equal to its height has the same volume as a cube. Give the ratio of the
length of the cube: the radius of the cylinder in the form n:1, giving n correct to 2 d.p.

11. A bag contains 20 counters, some red and some blue. When a counter is picked at random and not
9
replaced, and then another is picked at random, the probability of them both being red is . How
38
many red counters were in the bag to begin with?
12. The perimeter of a rectangle is 84cm. When the rectangle is cut in half along its diagonal, the
perimeter of each of the resulting right angled triangles is 72cm. Find the length and the width of
the rectangle.