2 ARITHMETIC

EXPRESSIONS

1. For each of the following situations, write the expression describing the situation,
identify its terms and find the value of the expression.
(a) Queen Alia gave 100 gold coins to
Princess Elsa and 100 gold coins to
Princess Anna last year. Princess Elsa used
the coins to start a business and doubled
her coins. Princess Anna bought jewellery
and has only half of the coins left. Write
an expression describing how many gold
coins Princess Elsa and Princess Anna
together have.
(b) A metro train ticket between two stations
is ₹40 for an adult and ₹20 for a child.
What is the total cost of tickets:
(i) for four adults and three children?
(ii) for two groups having three adults each? Border
3 cm
(c) Find the total height of the window
by writing an expression describing the relationship among the
measurements shown in the picture. Grill
2 cm
Gap
1. Read the situations given below. Write appropriate expressions for each of them and
5 cm
find their values.
(a) The district market in Begur operates on all seven days of a week. Rahim
Total
supplies 9 kg of mangoes each day from his orchard and Shyam supplies Height
11
kg of mangoes each day from his orchard to this market. Find the amount of
mangoes supplied by them in a week to the local district market.
(b) Binu earns ₹20,000 per month. She spends ₹5,000 on rent, ₹5,000 on food,
and ₹2,000 on other expenses every month. What is the amount Binu will
save by the end of a year?
(c) During the daytime a snail climbs 3 cm up a post, and during the night
while asleep, accidentally slips down by 2 cm. The post is 10 cm high, and a
delicious treat is on its top. In how many days will the snail get the treat?
 EXPRESSIONS
4 USING LETTER-
NUMBERS

Formula Detective
Find the formulas of the number machines below and write the expression for each set
of inputs.
5 2 8 1 9 11 10 10 a b

5 7 18 18

4 1 6 0 3 2 10 3 a b

5 1 7

expression: expression: expression: expression: expression:

Now, make a formula on your own. Write a few number machines as

examples using that formula. Challenge your classmates to figure it
out!
Note to the Not just solving problems but creating new questions is
also very much a part of learning and doing
Teacher:
mathematics!
 Example 12: Somjit noticed a repeating pattern along the border
of a saree.

A B C D E F

Patterns in a Calendar
Here is the calendar of November 2024. Consider 2 × 2 squares, as marked in the
calendar. The numbers in this square show an interesting property.

Let us take the marked 2 × 2 square, and consider the numbers lying on
the diagonals; 12 and 20; 13 and 19. Find their sums; 12 + 20, 13 + 19.
12 13
What do you observe?
They are equal.
19 20
Let us extend the numbers in the calendar beyond 30, creating
endless rows.
Will the diagonal sums be equal in every 2 × 2 square in this endless grid? How can we
be sure?
To be sure of this we cannot check with all 2 × 2 squares as there are an unlimited
number of them.
Let us consider a 2 × 2 square. Its top left number can be any
number. Let us call it ‘a’. a ?
Given that we know the top left number, how do we find the other
numbers in this 2 × 2 square? ? ?

As we have been doing, first let us describe the other numbers in words.
• the number to the right of ‘a’ will be 1 more than it.
• the number below ‘a’ will be 7 more than it.
• the number diagonal to ‘a’ will be 8 more than it.
So the other numbers in the 2 × 2 square can be a a+1
represented as shown in the grid. Let us find the diagonal sums; a + (a +
8), and (a + 1) + (a + 7). a+7 a+8
Let us simplify them.
Since the terms can be added in any order, the brackets can be opened.
a + (a + 8) = a + a + 8 = 2a + 8
(a + 1) + (a + 7) = a + 1 + a + 7 = a + a + 1 + 7 = 2a + 8
We see that both diagonal sums are equal to 2a + 8 (8 more than 2 times a).
Verify this expression for diagonal sums by considering any 2 × 2 square and taking its
top left number to be ‘a’.
Thus, we have shown that diagonal sums are equal for any value of a, i.e., for any 2 ×
2 square!

This problem is an example that shows the power of algebraic modelling in verifying whether
a pattern will always hold.

Consider a set of numbers from the calendar (having endless rows) forming under
the following shape:
8

14 15 16

22
Find the sum of all the numbers. Compare it with the number in the centre: 15. Repeat
this for another set of numbers that forms this shape. What do you observe?
We see that the total sum is always 5 times the number in the centre.
Math
Will this always happen? How do you show this?
 Talk
[Hint: Consider a general set of numbers that forms this shape. Take the number at the centre
to be ‘a’. Express the other numbers in terms of ‘a’.]
Find other shapes for which the sum of the numbers within the figure is Math
always a multiple of one of the numbers. Talk

Matchstick Patterns
Look at the picture below. It is a pattern using matchsticks. Can you identify
what the pattern is?

1 2 3 4

We can see that Step 1 has 1 triangle, Step 2 has 2 triangles, Step 3 has 3
triangles, and so on.
Can you tell how many matchsticks there will be in the next step, Step 5? It is 11. You
can also draw this and see.
How many matchsticks will there be in Step 33, Step 84, and Step 108? Of course, we
can draw and count, but is there a quicker way to find the answers using the pattern
present here?
What is the general rule to find the number of matchsticks in the next step? We can see
that at each step 2 matchsticks are placed to get the next one, i.e., the number of
matchsticks increases by 2 every time.

Step Number 1 2 3 4 5 6

No. of
Matchsticks 3 5 7 9 11 13

Think of a way to use this to find out the number of matchsticks in Step 33 (without
continuing to write the numbers).
As each time 2 matchsticks are being added, finding out how many 2s will be added in
Step 33 will help. Look at the table below and try to find out.

Step Number 1 2 3 4 5 6
 No. of
Matchsticks 3 5 7 9 11 13

3+2 3+2+2 3+2+2+2 3+2+2+2+2

The number of matchsticks needed to make 33 triangles (Step 33) is _________.
Similarly, find the number of matchsticks needed for Step 84 and Step 108.
What could be an expression describing the rule/formula to find out the number of
matchsticks at any step?
The pattern is such that in Step 10, nine 2s and an added 3 (3 + 2 × 9) gives the
number of matchsticks; in Step 11, ten 2s and an added 3 (3 + 2 × 10) gives the number of
matchsticks. For step y, what is the expression?
It is: one less than y (i.e. y – 1) 2s and a 3. Therefore, the
expression is
3 + 2 × (y – 1).
This expression gives the number of matchsticks in Step y. Now we can find the
number of matchsticks at any step quickly.
You might have already noticed that there is a 2 in the first step also, 3 = 1 + 2. Using
this, the expression we get is 2y + 1.
Does the above expression also give the number of matchsticks at each step correctly?
Are these expressions the same?
We can check by simplifying the expression 3 + 2 × (y – 1).
3 + 2 × (y – 1) = 3 + 2y – 2
= 2y + 1.
Both expressions are the same.
There is a different way to count, or see the pattern. Let us take a look at the picture
again.

Matchsticks are placed in two orientations — (a) horizontal ones at the top and
bottom, and (b) the ones placed diagonally in the middle. For example, in step 2
there are 2 matchsticks placed horizontally and 3 matchsticks placed diagonally.
What are these numbers in Step 3 and Step 4?
 How does the number of matchsticks change in each orientation as the steps
increase? Write an expression for the number of matchsticks at Step ‘y’ in each
orientation. Do the two expressions add up to 2y + 1?

1. Pushpita sells two types of flowers on Independence day: champak and marigold. ‘p’
customers only bought champak, ‘q’ customers only bought marigold, and ‘r’
customers bought both. On the same day, she gave away a tiny national flag to every
customer. How many flags did she give away that day?
(a) p + q + r (b) p + q + 2r
(c) 2 × (p + q + r) (d) p+q+r+2
(e) p + q + r + 1 (f) 2 × (p + q)
2. A snail is trying to climb along the wall of a deep well. During the day it climbs up
‘u’ cm and during the night it slowly slips down ‘d’ cm. This happens for 10 days and
10 nights.
(a) Write an expression describing how far away the snail is from its starting
position.
(b) What can we say about the snail’s movement if d > u?
3. Radha is preparing for a cycling race and practices daily. The first week she
cycles 5 km every day. Every week she increases the daily distance cycled Try
This
by ‘z’ km. How many kilometers would Radha have cycled after 3 weeks?
4. In the following figure, observe how the expression w + 2 becomes 4w + 20
along one path. Fill in the missing blanks on the remaining paths. The ovals contain
expressions and the boxes contain operations.
×3 w-3 –5 +3 w+5 ×4 4w + 20

w+2

–4 –8 +3 ×4 3w – 6

5. A local train from Yahapur to Vahapur stops at three stations at equal distances along
the way. The time taken in minutes to travel from one station to the next station is the
same and is denoted by t. The train stops for 2 minutes at each of the three stations.
(a) If t = 4, what is the time taken to travel from Yahapur to Vahapur?
(b) What is the algebraic expression for the time taken to travel from Yahapur to
Vahapur? [Hint: Draw a rough diagram to visualise the situation]
10. Imagine a straight rope. If it is cut once as shown in the picture, we get 2 pieces. If
the rope is folded once and then cut as shown, we
get 3 pieces. Observe the pattern and find the number of pieces if the rope is folded
10 times and cut. What is the expression for the number of pieces when the rope is
folded r times and cut?

11. Look at the matchstick pattern below. Observe and identify the pattern. How many
matchsticks are required to make 10 such squares. How many are required to make w
squares?

12. Have you noticed how the colours change in a traffic signal? The sequence of colour
changes is shown below.
Find the colour at positions 90, 190, and 343. Write expressions to describe the
positions for each colour.

...................
1 2 3 4 5

13. Observe the pattern below. How many squares will be there in Step 4, Step 10, Step
50? Write a general formula. How would the formula change if we want to count the
number of vertices of all the squares?
14. Numbers are written in a particular sequence in this
endless 4-column grid.
(a) Give expressions to generate all the
numbers in a given column (1, 2, 3,
4).
(b) In which row and column will the
following numbers appear:
(i) 124
(ii) 147
(iii) 201
(c) What number appears in row r and column c?
Observe the positions of multiples of 3. Do you see any pattern in it? List other patterns that
you see. 1 2 3 4

1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8

9 10 11 12

Lakpa has an odd number of ₹1 coins, an odd number of ₹5 13

coins 14 15 16

and an even number of ₹10 coins in his piggy bank. He calculated

the total and got ₹205. Did he make a mistake? If he did, explain
why. If he didn’t, how many coins of each type could he have?