Maths Question

Dear Sunny,

Ms Tan gave some sweets to 6 boys and 11 girls. Each child was given the same number
of sweets. Each boy then gave 2/3 of his share of sweets to the girls. As a result, each
girl now received 12 more sweets than before.
a) How many sweets did each boy left?
b) Find the total number of sweets each girl had in the end.

From the Desk of Sunny Tan........

Unit Transfer Method Versus Model Drawing

The question is the excerpt from the UTM publication, Chapter 1.1.
The following question is used to illustrate the Model Approach and Unit Transfer Method.

You will realise that the fundamental concept between UTM and MD is the same. While MD uses bar diagram and visual spatialisation, UTM uses tabulation and logical reasoning.

Question

5/6 of the buses were owned by Company C and the rest by Company S. Company S bought another 900 buses and now owns 2/3 of all the buses. How many buses does Company S have now?

Answer:






















Try to solve the following using UTM:

Tom had a box of red beads and yellow beads. When he added in 30 red beads, 20% of the beads were yellow beads. He added another 100 yellow beads; as a result, 60% of the beads in the box were yellow. How many red beads were there in the box at first?

Any Comments?

Dear Mr Sunny Tan,

1/5 of the children at the playground were girls and the rest were boys. When 8 girls left the playground, the fraction of girls decreased to 1/7 of the total number of children at the playground. How many children were at the playground at first? (Ans 120)


For the above Question in the UTM book (Pg 20),

We get the answer is 140 children.

Following is the detail

1/5 are girls and 4/5 are boys = 7/35 are girls and 28/35 are boys

8 girls left , so left 1/7 are girls and 6/7 are boys

1/7 will be equal to 5/35 are girls left.

so 7/35 minus 5/35 = 8 girls left

2 units = 8 girls

1 unit = 4

4 x 35 = 140

Check back the answer as follow

and 28-8 = 20 girls left in the playground.

20/140 = 1/7.

Please check.

Question Posted by Mdm Chong - UTM reader

UTM book, chapter 1.1, question 7 - Mdm Chong

With reference to the UTM book, chapter 1.1, question 7:

A concert hall has 600 seats. 10% of the seats are VIP seats while the rest are normal seats. How many VIP seats must be added so that the number of VIP seats will increase to 20%?

Please advise what is wrong with the following reasoning:








Question posted by Mdm Chong M.K, UTM Book reader
Fri, 6th Feb 2009


From the desk of Sunny Tan ... ...

Confusion Alert:

The 540 normal seats in the Before and After scenario remains unchanged. However, the percentage of the normal seats changes from 90% in the Before to 80% in the After scenario.
It is important to highlight to the students that percentage is relative to the total sum.
The number of the quantity being unchanged does not imply that the percentage of quantity being unchanged.

Therefore, in the Unit Transfer Method, students are encouraged to convert fraction, decimal, ratio, whole number, and percentage into units as follow: