Use algebraic expressions.
Can you decode the mystery of the missing numbers? Use your algebra skills to represent real-life purchases and actions with expressions and equations.
Remember: When writing amounts of money that include pence, always use two decimal places. For example, write £15.50 — not £15.5 or £15.500.

🙂 = Correct, ☹️ = Incorrect

📌 Rules

• Build equations from real-life scenarios: Assign letters to unknown values and set up expressions for totals, expenses, or perimeters. For example, total profit can be written as Profit = 8b + 3n – 7r, where b is books sold, n is notebooks sold, and r is staff hours worked.

• Substitute known values into formulas: Replace letters in expressions or formulas with the numbers given in the problem. For a perimeter formula like P = 2(x + x/3) with length x = 12, calculate the bracket first: 12 + 12/3 = 12 + 4 = 16, then multiply by 2 to get 32 cm.

• Solve step-by-step for missing quantities: Isolate unknown parts by subtracting known totals. If total revenue is £197 and book sales (16 × £8) equal £128, notebook revenue is 197 – 128 = £69. Divide by the price per notebook (£3) to find the quantity: 69 ÷ 3 = 23 notebooks.

💡 Tips

• Format money correctly: When entering amounts of money that include pence, always use exactly two decimal places (e.g. 15.50 or 1.50).

• Quick typing on our platform: Typing your answer is designed to be super quick and simple! Just type plain digits or decimals like 32 or 1.50 without adding any currency symbols or unit labels.

⚠️ Warnings

• Do not confuse single item prices with total category costs: Make sure you distinguish between the cost of all items in a group (e.g. total apple sales a = £3.50) and the price of a single item (e.g. £3.50 ÷ 3 for one pack of apples).

• Follow BODMAS/BIDMAS rules: Always work out brackets and multiplications before adding or subtracting. In pizza topping equations like p + (t × e), calculate t × e before adding the base price p.