Mathematics, Computing and Technology

MU123 Discovering mathematics

MU123
TMA 02
Covers Units 3, 4 and 5.

2015B
Cut-o date: 21 April 2015

Submission instructions
You will nd instructions for completing TMAs in the Assessment
resources area of the MU123 website. Please read these instructions before
beginning work on this TMA.
Reviewing your tutors comments on your previous TMA will help you as
you work on this one.

Special instructions
Remember that you need to explain your reasoning and communicate your
ideas clearly, as described in Subsection 5.3 of Unit 1. This includes:
explaining your mathematics in the context of the question
the correct use of notation and units
appropriate rounding.

c 2014 The Open University

Copyright !
11.1

WEB 04181 2

MU123 TMA 02
Question 1

Cut-o date 21 April 2015

30 marks

This question is based on your work on MU123 up to and including Unit 3.

(a) (i) Use a factor tree to write 1530 as a product of prime factors. You
should display your factor tree in your answer.

[4]

(ii) Calculate
7
9

1
6

8
12 ,

leaving your answer as a fraction in its simplest form, showing all

your working.

[4]

(iii) Simplify the surd

3 14

42
by writing it as a surd in its simplest form, showing your working.

[3]

(b) A group of 255 students are required to take a test. Of these,

225 actually take the test, and 30 are absent that day.
(i) Write down the ratio of the number of students who take the test
to the number of students who are absent. Simplify this as far as
possible.

[3]

(ii) Of the 225 students who take the test, the numbers of students
obtaining grades A, B, C and D are in the ratio 2 : 9 : 3 : 1,
respectively. Calculate the number of students obtaining each
grade. Explain how you could check that your answers are
reasonable.

[6]

(c) A group of 285 teenagers each send an average of 37 text messages per
day.
(i) Calculate the number of text messages that this group would send
over a period of a year (365 days).
Give your answer in ordinary notation unrounded, then write it
in scientic notation correct to three signicant gures.

[4]

(ii) If each text message sent costs 12.3p, calculate the total cost
(in ) of the messages sent by the group over a period of a year.
Give your answer in ordinary notation correct to two signicant
gures.

[2]

(iii) One of the teenagers pays 5 per month to send text messages.
Calculate the average cost (in ) per text for sending 37 texts
each day for a month (30 days).
Give your answer in ordinary notation correct to two signicant
gures.

page 2 of 5

[4]

Question 2

30 marks

This question is based on your work on MU123 up to and including Unit 4.

After a remarkably good summer, John decides to investigate whether it
really does rain more in summer than in winter. He looks up some gures
for his local area on the climate summaries pages of the Met Oce website.
John records the gures for his local area, East Anglia, in Table 1.
Table 1

Seasonal rainfall (mm)

Year

Summer

Winter

2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013

189
159
124
226
152
157
28
192
165
182
179
254
105

202
127
197
182
99
85
186
135
134
212
132
119
176

[Source: www.metoce.gov.uk/climate/uk]
(a) (i) Is this investigation comparing or seeking a relationship?
(ii) Are rainfall amounts continuous or discrete?
(iii) Are these primary or secondary data, from Johns point of view?
Explain your answers briey.

[6]

(b) Before analysing these datasets on a computer, spend a few minutes

scanning them by eye. Identify any outlier that appears to be an
error, briey justifying your choice.
John doesnt remember any particularly dry summer recently, so he
decides that the outlier must be a typing error and should not be included
in his analysis.
(c) Open Dataplotter and create a new dataset in each column by clicking
on New. Enter the data for summer in the rst column and the
data for winter in the second column. (Do not include the outlier;
you will now have 12 values for summer and 13 for winter.)
Copy and complete the following table. Where values need to be
rounded, give them correct to one decimal place. The means (rounded
to one decimal place) are given for you as a check that you have
entered the data correctly.

page 3 of 5

[2]

Seasonal rainfall (mm)

Summer

Winter

173.7

152.8

12

13

Minimum (Min)
Lower quartile (Q1)
Median
Upper quartile (Q3)
Maximum (Max)
Mean
Standard deviation (SD)
Interquartile range (IQR)
Range
Size of dataset (n)

[8]

(d) (i) Identify the two measures of location from the table in part (c).
Use both of these measures to determine which of the two
datasets has the higher location.

[3]

(ii) Identify the three measures of spread from the table in part (c).
Which of the two datasets has the wider spread, as measured by
each of these three measures?

[4]

(e) John concludes that it rains more in summer than in winter. Is this a
reasonable conclusion? Explain your answer briey.

[2]

(f) John discovers that the correct value for the outlier is 228 mm, and
wonders how the error aects his investigation.
Use Dataplotter to nd the mean and median of the summer data:
including the incorrect outlier;
including the correct value of 228 instead of the incorrect outlier.
(Your dataset will have 13 values each time.)
Copy and complete the following table, rounding values for the mean
to one decimal place.
Summer
with incorrect outlier

with correct value

13

13

Mean
Median
Size of dataset

What is the eect on the mean and on the median of including the
outlier instead of the correct value? Explain why this happens.
(g) Would including the correct gure aect Johns conclusion in
part (e)? Explain your answer briey.

page 4 of 5

[4]
[1]

Question 3

30 marks

This question is based on your work on MU123 up to and including Unit 5.

(a) Simplify each of the following expressions as far as possible; multiply
out any brackets, expand any algebraic fractions, and collect like
terms together. Show your working.
(i) 10a 12 12a + 17

[2]

(ii) 4(9 5r)

[2]

(iii) 3 + q(8 4q) 8q

[3]

(iv) 9x 3(7y 4x)

[3]

(v) 7(2x2 9x) + 5x(9 2x + 3x2 )

[5]

(vi)

p2 6p + 4
p

[4]

(b) Solve the following equations. Show your working and check that your
answers are correct.
(i) 5x + 12 = 2x 3
a
(ii)
1 = 2(a 13)
3
Question 4

[5]
[6]

10 marks

This question is based on your work on MU123 up to and including Unit 5.

In this question, you are asked to comment critically on a students
incorrect attempt at solving the equation
3
7 (x

3) = 3.

The attempt is shown below.

D bY%[hk ]
fY[e; hY[ _%[hk
fY[e; hY[ [
v[ _ h [
W ";

?
?

D ]hY[hk ] ?
(a) Substitute the students solution x = 14 into the left-hand side of the
equation 37 (x 3) = 3. Explain why this shows that the students
solution is incorrect.

[2]

(b) Write out your own full and correct attempt at solving the equation
and checking your solution.

[4]

(c) Identify the two lines in the students attempt where a mistake has
been made. Explain, as if directly to the student, why their working is
incorrect.

[4]

page 5 of 5