Difficulty: Rating: GCSE Marks:

GCSE Text:
The wall of a new building contains different sections. The outer layer is made of red brick, and the inner layer is plaster. The design is shown in this diagram:

Calculate the total thickness of the wall in mm.

Suggestions:
This video was made when a school building was being constructed on site. KIER Construction kindly allowed a number of videos to be made so that students could grasp the use of Maths in the construction industry. In solving this problem, students need to handle different units, therefore a class needs only about 5 minutes of time to reach the final answer. You may need to provide the conversion rate for lower ability students, or point them to a ruler to discover the conversion process themselves.

Extension Ideas:
Teachers could extend the learning by considering:

• What is the overall thickness in cm or even metres?
• The height of the walls is 7.5 metres. How many cm is that? How many mm is that?