Planet Plex Time
1 out of 3
On Planet Plex, there are only 6 hours in the day. Can you answer these questions about how Arog the Alien spends his day?
Problem
On Planet Plex, there are only six hours in a day but the days of the week are the same as ours. Arog the alien lives on Planet Plex.
Here is a clock which shows how Arog spends each hour of the day during the week:
What time does school start?
Arog starts his dinner at $4$ o'clock. What will he be about to do two hours later? What was he about to do five hours earlier?
Arog gets into bed on Wednesday evening. How long is it until school finishes on Friday?
Getting Started
Can you see on the clock what time school starts?
Could you use the clock to count how many hours have passed?
Student Solutions
Maziyar from Sir Roger Manwoods School and Rachel from Histon and Impington Infant School both sent completely correct solutions to Planet Plex Time. Maziyar says:
School starts at one 'o' clock.
He'll be about two get up two hours later.
He was about to go to sleep 5 hours earlier.
It is 9 hours before school finishes on Friday.
Rachel explains how she worked out the final part:
I worked this out by saying that 1 hour later he gets up on Thursday; 2 hours later he goes to school on Thursday; 3 hours later he has lunch on Thursday; 4 hours later, he plays on Thursday; 5 hours later he has dinner on Thursday; 6 hours later he goes to sleep on Thursday; 7 hours later he gets up on Friday; 8 hours later he goes to school on Friday and 9 hours later he finishes school, and is about to have lunch.
Well done both of you.
Teachers' Resources
Using NRICH Tasks Richly describes ways in which teachers and learners can work with NRICH tasks in the classroom.
Why do this problem?
This simple problem focuses on duration and will encourage learners to consider the passing of time in a different context.
Key questions
Possible extension
Children could have a go at the problem Times of Day.