Skip to main content
Links to the University of Cambridge website
Links to the NRICH website Home page
Nurturing young mathematicians: teacher webinars
30 April (Primary)
,
1 May (Secondary)
menu
search
Teachers
expand_more
Early years
Primary
Secondary
Post-16
Events
Professional development
Students
expand_more
Primary
Secondary
Post-16
Parents
expand_more
Early Years
Primary
Secondary
Post-16
Problem-solving Schools
About NRICH
expand_more
About us
Impact stories
Support us
Our funders
Contact us
search
Site search
search
Or search by topic
Number and algebra
The Number System and Place Value
Calculations and Numerical Methods
Fractions, Decimals, Percentages, Ratio and Proportion
Properties of Numbers
Patterns, Sequences and Structure
Algebraic expressions, equations and formulae
Coordinates, Functions and Graphs
Geometry and measure
Angles, Polygons, and Geometrical Proof
3D Geometry, Shape and Space
Measuring and calculating with units
Transformations and constructions
Pythagoras and Trigonometry
Vectors and Matrices
Probability and statistics
Handling, Processing and Representing Data
Probability
Working mathematically
Thinking mathematically
Mathematical mindsets
For younger learners
Early Years Foundation Stage
Advanced mathematics
Decision Mathematics and Combinatorics
Advanced Probability and Statistics
Mechanics
Calculus
Dividing a Cake
Age
7 to 11
Challenge Level
Problem
Getting Started
Student Solutions
Teachers' Resources
Why do this problem?
This problem
gives learners practice in fractions (tenths) as well as in addition and subtraction in a challenging form.
This sheet
has two copies of the cake with all the possible places to cut marked.
Key questions
What is the total of all the numbers on the cake? What is that divided by $3$?
How many numbers are there altogether on the cake?
If we cut the cake so that there is just one number on each piece, what fraction of the whole cake would each piece be?
Possible extension
Learners could change either the number of slices or the number of divisions and compare the results.
Possible support
Suggest using a calculator to work out what is the total of the numbers on the cake, and on each slice.
This sheet
might help.