David bought 8 cars and 4 helicopters which altogether cost £40.

On another occasion he bought 3 cars and 12 helicopters which cost £57.

Are these toys expensive? How much does one car cost? How much does one helicopter cost?

Hint: The answers are whole numbers.

## A Mathematics Lesson Starter Of The Day

• Transum,
•
• This is one of those starters that is different every time you load the page so you can use it many times with the same class. At a guess most pupils seeing this starter will not be familiar with simultaneous equations so a trial and improvement (involving lots of calculations) may be used. It is a good problem to develop a systematic way of working so that it is possible to home in on the correct answer.
• Mrs Walker, St.James' School
•
• My year 6 class found this fairly easy once they had a discussion with their neighbours. Satisfactory.
• Louisa, Greentrees School
•
• I did this with my Year 4 class and they found it very easy! They got the answer right! Slightly harder next time Transum. To see if it would be a harder one the next time we reloaded the page but it wasn't.

[Transum: Scroll down the page Louisa and you will find buttons which enable you to select different levels of difficulty.]

How did you use this starter? Can you suggest how teachers could present or develop this resource? Do you have any comments? It is always useful to receive feedback and helps make this free resource even more useful for Maths teachers anywhere in the world.

Previous Day | This starter is for 5 June | Next Day

 This activity is suitable for students of mathematics all around the world. Use the button below to change the currency symbol used to make it more relevant to your students. You may wish to choose an unfamiliar currency to extend your students' experience.

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Generate another problem:

Level 1:
Eg. 3x + 2y = 18
5x + 2y = 26
(same coefficient of second variable)

Level 2:
Eg. 3x + 2y = 18
5x + 4y = 32
(Simple multiple coefficient of second variable)

Level 3:
Random coefficients

Note to teacher: Doing this activity once with a class helps students develop strategies. It is only when they do this activity a second time that they will have the opportunity to practise those strategies. That is when the learning is consolidated. Click the button above to regenerate another version of this starter from random numbers.

Your access to the majority of the Transum resources continues to be free but you can help support the continued growth of the website by doing your Amazon shopping using the links on this page. Below is an Amazon link. As an Amazon Associate I earn a small amount from qualifying purchases which helps pay for the upkeep of this website.

Educational Technology on Amazon

Here is the URL which will take them to a related student activity.

Transum.org/go/?to=simsol

## Curriculum Reference

See the National Curriculum page for links to related online activities and resources.

For Students:

For All:
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