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Can you rank these sets of quantities in order, from smallest to largest? Can you provide convincing evidence for your rankings?
Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
filled star empty star empty star
Secondary
NUMBER
Place Value, Integers, Ordering & Rounding
Exploring and noticing Working systematically Conjecturing and generalising Visualising and representing Reasoning, convincing and proving
Being curious Being resourceful Being resilient Being collaborative

Problem

 Place Your Orders printable worksheet

 

Have a look at the sets of four quantities below. Can you rank them in order from smallest to largest?

To help you to decide on your rankings, you may need to find extra information or carry out some experiments.

Can you provide convincing evidence of your final rankings?

 

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Number of

 

Mars bars with the same total weight as your whole class

Steps when walking at a leisurely pace for 1 hour

Stitches in a handknitted jumper

People at a cup final in a large stadium
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Distance

You can hop in 5 seconds

From the top of a 6 storey building to the ground

The distance from the penalty spot to the goal on a football field

A car can drive on $1$cm$^3$ of fuel
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Time

That a pet rat lives

For light to reach us from the nearest star other than the sun

Between two football world cups

For all of the red blood cells in your body to be replaced....10 times
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Speed

 

Of a racehorse running at maximum speed

Of the fastest sprinter in the world

Of the fastest cyclist in an Olympic cycle sprint race

Of a bus going past the school
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Mass 

 

Of a standard family car

Of a million cubic centimetres of water

Of a team of international male rugby players (15 players)

Of enough potatoes to make chips to feed everyone in the school for a week.
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Area 

 

Of the sheets of paper in a ream (500 sheets) of A4.

Of the floor of the classroom

Covered by 5 litres of paint

Of fabric needed to make school uniforms for the whole class.
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Volume of water

 

In a half-filled bath

Used in a 10 minute shower

Used in 5 dishwasher cycles

Used to flush the toilet 20 times

 

 

Perhaps you might like to make 4 ranked quantities of your own to challenge a friend.

 

For more advanced science, see Approximately Certain.