Balancing 2

Meg and Mo have been distracted from their game of Marbles by the balance on which they hang their pouches of marbles between games.

They discover that they can make their pouches balance with Meg's pouch 60cm from the centre, and with 10 marbles in Mo's pouch.

Use the interactivity to explore this further.

Full Screen Version

Fill in the table below showing how many marbles Mo needs in her pouch to balance Meg's pouch when it is in various different places away from the centre.

Meg	Mo
60cm	10 marbles
30cm
90cm

Without using the interactivitiy, can you now work out how many marbles Mo would need in her pouch to balance with Meg's?

Meg	Mo
120cm
12cm
48cm
24cm
75cm

Try to explain how you worked it out.

They take a break from playing with the balance to play another quick game of Marbles, after which they both have different numbers of marbles and someone has sneakily altered the balance.

They find that when they hang their pouches on the new balance, the two pouches balance when Meg has 12 marbles, and Mo has her pouch 21cm from the centre.

Use the interactivity to explore this further.

This time, Mo is going to move her pouch as Meg adds and removes marbles from her own pouch. Fill in the table below to show where Mo needs to move her pouch.

Meg	Mo
12 marbles	21cm
24 marbles
16 marbles
8 marbles

Without using the interactivitiy, can you now work out where Mo would need to place her pouch to balance with Meg's?

Meg	Mo
30 marbles
15 marbles
2 marbles
x marbles

Try to explain how you worked it out.