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'Which Would You Rather?' printed from https://nrich.maths.org/

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Marion at Tattingstone School and Aditya, who is from Bristol Grammar, both calculated these percentages carefully and came to sensible conclusions!

  1. Have 10% of £5 or 75% of 80p. 10% of £5 is 50p:
    10% of £5 = (10/100) * 500 = 5000/100 = 50
    and 75% of 80p is 60p. I'd rather have the latter.
  2. Have 60% of 2 pizzas or 26% of 5 pizzas. 60% of 2 is 1.2 and 26% of 5 is 1.3. Again, I'd rather have the latter.
  3. Get bitten by 15% of 120 mosquitoes or by 8% of 250 mosquitoes. 15% of 120 is 18 and 8% of 250 is 20. I'd prefer the first.
  4. Skip with a rope 54% of 105cm long or with one 88% of 2.75m long. 54% of 105cm is 56.7cm, and 88% of 2.75m is 2.42m = 242cm. I'd prefer using the longer rope.
  5. Get stuck in a traffic jam lasting 33% of 2 hours or 44% of 1 hr 40 mins. 33% of 120 minutes is 40 minutes, and 44% of 100 minutes is 44 minutes. I'd prefer neither!