© Nuffield Foundation 2011

Free-Standing Mathematics Activity

Shorter by helicopter?

© Nuffield Foundation 2011

How much further is it by road than by helicopter?

Image

© RaimondSpekking / W

ikimedia Com

mons / CC-BY-SA-3.0 &

GFD

L

© Nuffield Foundation 2011

Is it usually quicker to go by helicopter?

• Why?• Is there a

connection between the direct distance and the distance by road?

Image by Philip H

allilng reproduced under the Creative Com

mons Att

ribution/Share-Alike 2.0 Generic License

• In this activity you will use a graph to try to find a connection

© Nuffield Foundation 2011

How to find the road distance

Think aboutHow far is it from Bristol to Plymouth?

Think aboutHow far is it from Bristol to Plymouth?

© Nuffield Foundation 2011

How to find the distance by helicopter

• Use a ruler to measure the distance on a map• Use the scale to find the actual distance

Think aboutHow do you use the scale to work out the actual distance?

Think aboutHow do you use the scale to work out the actual distance?

Ruler image by Luigi Chiesa shared under the Creative Com

mons Att

ribution/Share-Alike 3.0 Unported License

Map im

age by Anonymous101 shared under Creative Com

mons Att

ribution/Share-Alike 3.0 Unported License

© Nuffield Foundation 2011

At the end of the activity

• Why did the graph go through (0,0)?• Did you find a connection between the distances by

helicopter and by road?• If you have found a rule, how can you check that it

works?• Would your results have been more accurate if you

had used a larger scale map?