Difficulty: Rating: GCSE Marks:

GCSE Text:
A guinea pig hutch has two floors and has been bought to house 2 guinea pigs. The top floor has a cutout which allows for a ramp to connect the two floors. The dimension are:

The minimum floor area for a hutch with 2 pigs is 0.7m². Is the hutch big enough to house 2 pigs?  Show all workings to justify your answer.

Suggestions:
Whilst students will need to have confidence in calculating the areas of rectangles, this GCSE level question mixes units and requires students to look at the units of the minimum amount to determine how to convert the measurements into the correct unit. Common mistakes are that students add on the ‘hole’ in the top floor instead of subtracting.

Extension Ideas:
Teachers could extend the learning by considering:

• Convert the total hutch floor area to cm²
• If a third and any additional guinea pigs requires an extra 0.25m² each, what would be the minimum floor area of a hutch to house 5 pigs?