A little bit of intuition and then a little bit of playing around with numbers...

I cheated a little and made a leap in assuming that one of the fractions would be simple given the problem is for 11 year olds and so tried 1/2 firstt. I then needed to find away of creating 0.5 with the other digits. So the denominator and numerator can only start with the following options:

9/4, 8/4, 7/3, 6/3, because the 2 and 1 have already been used.

Then it was just a case of playing around with the remaining digits so that the bottom number is twice that of the top number.

It wouldn't surprise me if they have been taught a method that escapes me, but then I am a physicist and not a pure mathematician! Funnily enough you do find that there are some problems that kids can do that experienced mathematicians can't do because they simply haven't done those kinds of problems for a long time.

Posted By: Rob NCFC on January 15th 2017 at 17:05:02

Message Thread

Who is good at maths? Need help with 11 year olds homework! (General Chat) - Azteca, Jan 15, 15:47:26
- .... (General Chat) - Rob NCFC, Jan 15, 16:49:00
  - Legend! Thank you! (n/m) (General Chat) - Azteca, Jan 15, 16:56:33
    - Can I asked how you worked that out, or was it a load of experimenting? (n/m) (General Chat) - Azteca, Jan 15, 16:57:26
      - A little bit of intuition and then a little bit of playing around with numbers... (General Chat) - Rob NCFC, Jan 15, 17:05:02
        
        Sorry those numbers should have been the other way around of course: (General Chat) - Rob NCFC, Jan 15, 17:24:23
        
        Well, well done. She assures me they weren't taught a method in class (General Chat) - Azteca, Jan 15, 18:26:03

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