Grade 12

Mathematical Literacy
Study Notes

Term 1

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 1. Conversions and Time

Conversion factor A number used to change a unit from one measuring system
to another
Convert A change from one form/system into another
Imperial units A measuring system including pounds, ounces, feet, gallons,
yards and miles
SI units The International System of Units, which is the universally
agreed-upon system for measurement, including meters,
kilograms, seconds etc.

#1
Conversions

• To convert units of mass, length, capacity, and time – use conversion factors.
• The conversion factor can generally be determined from the prefix of the unit.

• From a larger unit to a smaller one, divide by the conversion factor

e.g. from km → m, divide by 1000
• From a smaller unit to a larger one, multiply by the conversion factor
e.g. from ml → l, multiply by 1000

• To convert between SI and Imperial units – use conversion tables.

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• To convert between cubic units and litres or millilitres, the following
conversion factors can be used:

#2
Time

• A time recording value is a value that has been recorded on a stopwatch or

other time-keeping device.
• Analogue time is what you see on a clock face. The clock will have the same
time on it twice a day for am and pm time.
• Digital time refers to the time you see on a digital clock. If it is a 24 hour digital
clock, it will read from 00.00 to 23:59.

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 • Because the time values may include hour, minute, and second values, any
calculations must take into account how the time values have changed with
respect to all three components.

Travelling costs

• In order to determine the total operating cost of using a vehicle you need to
establish:

1. The fixed cost value of running the vehicle.

2. The running cost value of running the vehicle.

• For fixed costs, the following has to be considered: Depreciation on the

vehicle’s value and the cost of insurance and licensing the vehicle.
• For running costs, the following has to be considered: Fuel and maintenance
costs.

Calculating speed

• Speed tells us how fast something or someone is travelling. You can find the
average speed of an object if you know the distance travelled and the time it
took.
• The formula for speed is:

speed = distance ÷ time

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 2. Finance

Break-even point Point where the total cost is equal to the total sales of a
business, therefore they have enough money to cover their
costs (there is no profit or loss)
Budget An estimation of income and expenditure for a financial
period, used for planning
Cost of production The total cost incurred to produce a certain number of
goods or deliver a service
Cost price The cost per unit to produce an item, excluding profit
Expenditure Money spent by the business
Income Money received from the sale of goods or services
Invoice A financial document detailing services rendered, or goods
sold and the associated costs
Selling price The price goods or services are sold for
Tariff The rate charged on a service rendered, such duties paid
on imports, water consumption, etc.
Trial-and-error method Estimating and testing values to find a given solution

#1
Financial documents

Till slips

• A till slip is a receipt which is produced when a customer makes a purchase

and serves as proof of payment for the goods or services purchased.

Account statements

Opening balance The amount owed at the beginning of the period

Closing balance The amount owed at the end of the period
Amount due The minimum payment due/ amount to be paid (usually
calculated as a percentage of the total amount owed)
Debit Amount owed by the customer
Credit Payment(s) made by the customer

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 • An account statement is a record of goods purchased on credit.
• Account statements are sent to customers on a regular basis - usually
monthly - and also serve as a receipt for money paid by you.

Household accounts

• These are accounts sent to customers for services used within their
households such as water, electricity, telephone, cellphone and internet.

Invoices

• An invoice is a list of goods or services rendered to a customer, including a

statement of the total cost.

Quotations

• A quotation, or quote, is a document that a supplier submits to a potential

client with a proposed price for the supplier's goods or services based on
certain conditions.

Payslips

• A payslip is legally required by law and serves as a record of the information

about remuneration paid to an employee.

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Salary A fixed, regular payment made to an employee in a pay period. A
salary is based on an annual total and not the number of hours
worked.
Wage Payment for work completed which is based on an hourly, daily or
weekly rate or a piece-work rate.
Deductions The following are examples of salary deductions:

PAYE: Pay-As-You-Earn
UIF: Unemployment Insurance Fund
SITE: Standard Income Tax on Employees
Union Contributions
Medical Aid Contributions
Pension Fund Contributions

Travel Allowances

• A travel allowance is a set amount of money paid to an employee in respect of

travelling expenses for business purposes.
• A travel allowance covers the fixed cost, fuel and maintenance costs of the
employee’s vehicle.
• In order to determine the total running costs of a vehicle the South African
Revenue Services (SARS) publishes a table which can be used to calculate
running costs based on the value of the vehicle.

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 #2
Tariff systems
Tariffs It is a cost per measuring unit for a
specific service, examples are; Water
tariff – R/kl, Electricity – R/kWh,
Telephone/Cellphone – R/minute or
c/second.
Sliding scale/Stepped tariff system Water and electricity tariffs are usually
calculated in steps, the more you
use/consume the more expensive the
rate of charge becomes. You pay a
certain rate for a fixed amount and then
the rate increases again for a fixed
amount.
Prepaid tariff system System where you pay as you use the
service, usually a constant rate of charge
Contract tariff system Usually involves a fixed cost
(subscription fee/contract fee) plus
charges you pay as you use the service.
It will usually have a fixed cost
irrespective of whether you use the
service or not.
Subscription fees Usually includes the cost of a product
(cellphone) as well as administrative
services included.
Return trip Refers to a trip where it is a “there and
back” trip and not just a one-way trip.

#3
Income and expenditure
• An income and expenditure statement is also known as a profit and loss
statement.
• In a business's income-and-expenditure statement, data are often shown for
two consecutive time periods so that a comparison may be performed to see
changes and areas of improvement or concern.
• It is important for a business to complete income-and-expenditure statements
to determine whether they are making a profit or running at a loss.

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Surplus and deficit

Working to make a profit

• A business makes a profit when its total income is greater than its total
expenditure.
• Different forms of income and expenses are included in income and
expenditure statements:

• There are also fixed, variable and incidental incomes.

#4
Profit and loss
Selling price (SP) The price at which a dealer sells goods.
Cost price (CP) The price at which a dealer buys goods.
Profit The difference between the selling price and the cost price
where the selling price is greater than the cost price.
Loss The difference between the selling price and the cost price
where the cost price is greater than the selling price.

Determining percentage profit

• When expressing profit as a percentage, it’s sometimes more helpful. This is

accomplished by comparing the profit earned to the costs of manufacturing
the item:

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 #5
Budgets
• A budget is a document that forecasts income and expenses for a specified
period of time.
• Budgets are used to prepare for the future and to forecast how the company's
finances will look like over time.
• Budgets estimate the costs of organising an event, such as a wedding.
• Budgets frequently include both a description of budgeted and actual income
and expenditure.
• This comparison makes it possible to see whether the business has
performed as predicted and how things have changed over the course of the
year.

Budgets in business

• Budgets are an important aspect of running a successful and efficient

business.
• Budgeting is normally done once a year in most businesses. Throughout the
following year, management will look at this budget to see if the business is
performing above or below budget.

National and international budgets

• Governments all around the world devote a significant amount of time and
resources to planning and finalising their budgets for the coming financial
year.
• In South Africa, budgets are finalised and presented to the public during
February.

#6
Cost price and selling price
• It is critical for management to assess the cost of manufacturing goods or
providing services in order for a company to succeed.
• To set the selling price of goods or services, every business must decide on a
mark-up price.
• The selling price is the amount paid by the customer for the goods or
services.

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 • VAT is usually included in the selling price.

Selling price (SP) = Cost Price (CP) + Mark-Up

𝐒𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐞
Selling price without VAT =
𝟏𝟏𝟓%

Determining the selling price

#7
Break-even analysis
• In a business, the break-even value refers to the amount of income that the
business must generate in order to cover all expenses incurred in the running
of the business. (Total revenue = total expenses)
• The break-even value gives an indication of how much income a business
must generate in order to make a profit.
• The break-even point is the point at which total revenue equals total costs or
expenses. At this point there is no profit or loss.

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Break-even point The point where the cost is equal to the income.
Loss region The region between cost and revenue graphs and below
the break-even point.
Profit region The region between cost and revenue graphs and above
the break-even point.

• The term "break-even" is used outside of the business world to refer to the
values at which two items are equal. For instance, the number of minutes of
talk time at which two different cell phone plans have the same cost.

Determining the break-even value

• To calculate the break-even values more accurately, equations constructed

for the income and costs can be used, as well as a process of substitution and
trial and improvement.

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 3. Data Handling

Categorical data A collection of information that has been sorted into

two or more distinct groups
Continuous data Numerical data that can be measured on an infinite
scale, such as weight or height
Discrete data Numerical data that has a distinct number of possible
values, such as the number of students in a class
Percentiles Dividing observations equally into one hundred
intervals
Population The entire source of data involved in a particular
investigation
Mean The average value of the dataset, calculated using the
sum of all given values divided by the total number of
values
Measures of central Values that give insight into the balance or distribution
tendency within a data set, including mean, median and mode
Measures of spread Numbers that show the spread of data values in a
numerical data set, including range, quartiles, and
percentiles
Median The middle value in a list of sorted numbers
Mode The value appearing most often in a dataset
Quartiles Dividing observations into four intervals
Range The difference between the highest and lowest data
values
Representative sample A subset of the population that is likely to gather
similar results to that of the population as a whole

#1
Collecting data
• The process of data handling consists of six stages which are coupled like the
links of a chain:

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 • Research refers to the process of studying a subject to uncover new facts.
• In statistics, valid data means that the data represents the real world
accurately.
• The aim of research influences the way data will be collected.

Developing questions

• The development of questions is the first step in any statistical process. These
questions provide context for the data collection.
• These questions will have an impact on the types of data that must be
collected as well as how the data is collected, organised, represented, and
summarised.

Plan research and collect data

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 • When collecting data, is it important to consider the type of data collection tool
that will be the most effective for collecting the data as well as the nature of
the group of people / objects from which the data will be collected.
• Data can be obtained from a number of sources, including people, animals,
plants, databases, etc.
• It is critical to distinguish between the population and the sample when
collecting data from any of these sources.

Biased samples

• A biased sample does not accurately reflect all the characteristics of the
population.
• Such samples are frequently chosen to affect an investigation's outcome or to
convey a specific point of view.
• The following are the most prevalent biased sampling methods:

Unbiased samples

• An unbiased sample reflects the population's characteristics.

• The following are the most prevalent unbiased sampling methods:

1. Simple random sampling

2. Systemic random sampling
3. Stratified random sampling
4. Cluster sampling

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 #2
Classifying and organising data

Sorting and arranging data

• Sorting data involves putting the data in a particular order.

• When dealing with numerical data, this could entail sorting the information
from smallest to largest (or largest to smallest); when dealing with categorical
data (e.g., different sorts of fruit), it could entail sorting the information
alphabetically.
• It is important to be able to sort data according to more than one criterion.
• Sorting the data in this manner organises it into a format that is easier to work
with when measuring it or constructing frequency tables and graphs.

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Frequency tables and tallies

• A frequency value is a value that indicates how often a specific piece of data
appears in a data set.
• Frequency tables are used to summarise how often different values appear in
a data set.
• Frequency tables make it possible to compare the frequency of different
components of the data.
• Class intervals are frequently used to “group" data into more manageable
categories in order to make it easier to organise sets of data with a large
number of extremely varied values.

#3
Summarising data

• The mean of a group of data is also called the “average” and it is the method
of adding up all the numbers and then to divide by the sum of the number
values.
• The median is the middle number of a set of data after it has been placed in
order.
• The mode is the number that is repeated more often than any other.
• The range is the difference between the highest (max) and the lowest (min)
value.

Measures of central tendency

• The mean, median and mode provide an indication of the “centre” of a data
set, or an indication of the “average” value in a data set – a value in the data

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 set that can be seen to be representative and stand for the majority of the
values in the data set.
• Depending on the type of data being dealt with and the nature of the data,
sometimes the mean is more appropriate than the others, but sometimes one
of the others is more appropriate than the mean.

Measures of spread

• Measures of spread includes the range, median, lower quartile, upper quartile,
interquartile range and percentiles.
• The range of a data set provides an indication of how spread out the values in
a data set are.
• It is only possible to see if the values in a data set are widely spread out when
it becomes possible to compare the range for that data set to another data
set.
• The spread of values in a data set can reveal vital information about the data
set's tendencies, particularly whether the values are very similar or vastly
different.

Outliers

• An outlier is an observation that lies an abnormal distance from other values

in a random sample from a population.
• When using measures of central tendency and spread to analyse and
summarise data, take note of the following:

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 1. Be aware that there may be outliers in the data and identify them.
2. Check whether these outliers have any effect and influence on the
interpretation of the data.

• If the outliers do influence the data, then it is important to exclude the outliers
from the calculations.

Choosing the most appropriate measure

When to use the mean

• When there are no extreme values in the data,
the mean is useful.
• If the data contains outliers, the mean
becomes skewed and inappropriate.

When to use the median

• The median is not affected by outliers, thus it
can be more effective than the mean.
• If the values in the data set are widely spread,
then the middle value might be far away from
many of the other values and might not be
representative of those values.

When to use the mode

• Just because a value appears the most
frequently in a set of data doesn't mean it
represents the majority of the values in the
set.
• The mode is useful when it is important to
know the object that occurs most often.

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Box-and-whisker plots

• Box-and-whisker plots can be used to summarise information about the

measures of spread of a data set.
• These plots show the distribution of a set of data along a number line, dividing
the data into four parts using the median and quartiles.

Percentiles

• A final measure of spread is percentiles. As the name suggests, percentiles

divide a group of data into a hundred equal parts.

Growth charts

• Growth charts are a series of percentile curves that are drawn from data taken
from thousands of children and then plotted.

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 #4
Representing data
• Sometimes it can be challenging to identify trends in numbers that are
organised in tables, so we draw graphs of the organised data to visually
represent these trends.

• The following graphs and charts will aid in the representation of data:

1. Multiple bar graphs

2. Exploded pie-charts
3. Scatter plot graphs
4. Box-and-whisker plots

Multiple bar graphs

• Multiple bar graphs are graphs that contain multiple bars for each category of
data.
• Each bar indicates a different component of each category of the data.

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 • These graphs are specifically directed towards representing either two
categories of data or two sets of data and facilitating a comparison between
the categories or sets.

Double bar graph:

Vertical stack graph:

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Line graphs
• Line graphs are used to track data that changes over time. A series of plotted
points are used, joined by a line of “best fit”.
• Placing two line graphs on a single set of axes thus makes it possible to
compare how changes in different data sets will change over time and will
change differently to each other.
• Broken-line graphs are used to display data obtained by measuring something
repeatedly over time.
• Broken-line graphs show fluctuations in the data. The slope of the line
segment indicates the direction of the trend at a glance.

Pie charts
• Pie charts are useful when comparing percentages. Each sector indicates a
percentage.

Bar-of-pie chart:

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Pie-of-pie chart:

Scatter plot graphs

• A scatter plot uses dots to represent values for two different numeric
variables.
• The position of each dot on the horizontal and vertical axis indicates values
for an individual data point.
• Scatter plots are used to observe relationships between variables.
• By looking at how the points are scattered on the graph one can get a sense
of whether there is a pattern in the way in which the different variables or
quantities are related, and whether this pattern shows a close relationship, or
a weak relationship, or even no relationship.
• The term “correlation‟ is the word that is used to describe whether there is a
relationship or patterns between the variables.
• Weak correlation indicates that there is only a weak pattern.
• Strong correlation indicates a strong pattern/relationship.

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Histograms
• A histogram is a plot that lets you discover, and show, the underlying
frequency distribution (shape) of a set of continuous data.
• This allows the inspection of the data for its underlying distribution (e.g.,
normal distribution), outliers, skewness, etc.
• Each bin contains the number of occurrences of scores in the data set that
are contained within that bin.
• Notice that, unlike a bar chart, there are no "gaps" between the bars (although
some bars might be "absent" reflecting no frequencies).

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 4. The Cost of Money

Accrued An amount that accumulates over time

Annuity An annuity is a contract with an insurance company that
promises to pay the buyer a steady stream of income in the
future, such as after retirement.
Inflation An increase in the cost of goods and services over time due to
changes in the economy
Interest rate value The percentage rate interest charged on an amount
Interest value The rand value added to a loan or investment
Investment Something in which you invest money to gain profit
Loan A sum of money borrowed from a financial institution and paid
back at a later date with added interest
Principal amount The initial amount invested or loaned

#1
Interest and investments
• Whenever a person buys something on credit, they are charged interest.
• Interest is the amount of money that you are charged (by the lender of money)
for borrowing an amount of money, over a period of time.
• Interest rate is a percentage charged for the borrowing, or loan, of a sum of
money over a given period of time.
• If you save money in a bank account, you also earn interest on the balance in
your account.
• The lower the interest rate, the lower the amount of interest that is
charged/earned.
• If you borrow money from a bank, you will have to pay the actual value of the
loan plus an interest fee.
• There are two types of interest; simple and compound.
• Simple interest is visually interpreted as straight-line growth. The value of the
interest is calculated using the original amount invested or borrowed.
• Compound interest is visually interpreted as exponential growth. It is
calculated on the initial amount and any subsequent interest that is earned or
charged.

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Simple interest

• Simple interest is when you pay or earn interest on the original amount only.

• The interest is calculated on the money initially invested or borrowed.

• To calculate the total amount paid/earned (interest + the original amount), you
can use the formula:

Compound interest

• Compound interest differs from simple interest in such a way that we no

longer have the same interest amount every period.
• We have an interest amount that increases every period.
• The reason for this is that we no longer earn interest only on the initial amount
invested but, on the interest earned in each of the previous periods as well.
• This means that the investment amount, which we use to calculate periodic
interest, constantly changes.
• Compound interest is calculated on the initial amount and any subsequent
interest that is earned or charged.

• To isolate the interest amount, we must subtract the initial investment amount
from the total value of the investment.
• We use the following formula to calculate the interest value:

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 • It is not possible to calculate the interest amount without having first
calculated the total value of the investment.

Interest charged bi-annually, quartely or monthly

• When interest is compounded more than once a year (annually) you first have
to calculate i and n in the following way:

• Where interest is calculated bi-annually:

i = rate ÷ 2 and n = no of years x 2

• Where interest is calculated quarterly:

i = rate ÷ 4 and n = no of years x 4

• Where interest is calculated monthly:

i = rate ÷ 12 and n = no of years x 12

#2
Loans, investments and banking

Loans

• When you borrow money in the form of a hire purchase agreement from a
store, or a bond from a bank to buy a car, or from micro-lenders, the amount
of money you pay back is much more than the amount you borrowed,
because of interest added.
• The interest is called the cost of the loan.
• If the interest rate decreases, then the interest is reduced.
• If you pay back the loan as quickly as possible by increasing the monthly
payment, the interest will be reduced as well.

Investments

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 • An investment is where money is paid into a fund which then gains interest
and increases the value of the original money to the benefit of the investor.
• Interest is calculated on the closing balance of the account and paid into the
investment on a monthly basis. In this way both the funds invested and the
interest earned gather additional interest.

Retirement annuities

• Money is placed into a special fund.

• Every month a payment is made to this fund.
• The fund earns interest and it grows in a compound way.
• At a certain age (normally at age 65), the investor can draw a monthly
payment as an income replacement in their retirement.

Stokvels

• A group of people pool their money and make regular contributions to the
pool.
• In a ‘shared investment scheme’ they then either share the pool amongst the
members or they take turns to withdraw the whole pool.
• Another type of stokvel is a ‘shared buying scheme’. Here the group pools
their money so that they can buy in bulk and qualify for savings on those bulk
purchases.

#3
Inflation

• Inflation is the measure of change in the purchasing/buying power of money

over time.

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 • Inflation represents the average increase in the prices of a variety of goods
and services over time. Different items can have different inflation rates.
• Inflation rate is the percentage change in the cost of goods and services from
one year (or month) to the next.
• General formula:

Current price − Previous price

Inflation rate = × 100
Previous price

Consumer price index

• The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a measure that examines the weighted
average of prices of a basket of consumer goods and services, such as
transportation, food, and medical care.
• It is calculated by taking price changes for each item in the predetermined
basket of goods and averaging them.
• Changes in the CPI are used to assess price changes associated with the
cost of living.
• The CPI is one of the most frequently used statistics for identifying periods of
inflation or deflation.

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