Difficulty: Rating: GCSE Marks:

GCSE Text:
A train leaves Folkestone station every 40 minutes bound for Calais in France. Meanwhile, a ferry leaves the port of Dover every 90 minutes also sailing to Calais.  A train and a ferry both leave at 8am each morning.

When will be the next time after 8am when a train and a ferry are leaving at the same time?

Suggestions:
Whenever used, students find the footage of a busy port and the train terminal captivating, and many constructive conversations often follow about costs and speed of travel. Students will solve this in around 5 minutes, and may choose to list each departure time for both ferries, or calculate the LCM of the intervals. Either way is appropriate and worthy of discussion.

Extension Ideas:
Teachers could extend the learning by considering:

• A ferry can carry up to 1750 passengers and 1000 cars.  A Eurotunnel train can carry up to 120 cars and 8 coaches. Express the train’s car capacity as a percentage of the ferry’s car capacity.
• The distance from Dover to Calais is 26 miles. How far is this in km?
• Ferries travel at an average speed of 15 miles per hr. As the distance from Dover to Calais is 26 miles, how long is a typical sailing (in hrs and mins)?