On 05/06/2015 16:36, Tim Watts wrote:
On 05/06/15 16:15, Brian-Gaff wrote:
It does not seem a very useful form of the problem. OK I know its
trying to
get people to not think in a regimented way and find the missing bits of
the puzzle from what is given, but my main annoyance at most exams,
which I
always did badly at, was the meaningless unuseful problems they put in
them.
Real world problems should be used in my view, as that is the situation
these people are going to use their talents in, not some ambiguously
worded
meaningless problem.
Brian


It is a pity my 1988 past question is in image format and not text - you
would have liked it - it was calculating concrete mixes!


A quick OCR:

A coarse mix of concrete is made by using 2 parts of water with 3 parts
of sand, 4 parts of drippings and 2 parts of cement by volume. Assuming
that there is no loss in volume on mixing, calculate
(a) the number of spadefulls of chippings needed to make 22 spadefulls
of concrete.
{b) the amount of concrete, in cm^3 to 2 significant figures, which
would be obtained by using 2850 cm^3 of clippings.
A rectangular base is to be made for a garage using this coarse mix of
concrete. The base measures 6 m by 3.5 m and it is to be 15 cm thick.
Calculate
(c) the volume of the base in cm^3,
id) the minimum quantity of sand, in cm^3 to 2 significant figures,
which will be needed to make this base.
The cost of a bag of cement is £2.90 and it contains 40 000 cm^3; the
cost of a sack of sand is €1.50 and it contains 80 000 cm^3; the cost of
a barrowfull of chippings is £1.25 and it contains 150000 cm^3. Assuming
that cement, sand and chippings are only for sale in multiples of these
quantities,
(e) find the total cost of buying sufficient materials from which to
make the base.

(12 marks)

--
Cheers,

John.

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