Page 97 - MAT KS3 Y8 Cambridge CheckPoint

9 Simplifying expressions and solving equations

You won’t be surprised to hear that computer programmers, Key words
scientists, engineers and statisticians all use algebra in their jobs.
But you may be surprised at some other jobs that also need algebra. Make sure you learn and
understand these key words:
Cooks and chefs prepare food for other people. They work in all
simplify
sorts of places, from cafés and restaurants to international business
collect like terms
headquarters. They need to plan menus and adapt recipes for the
expand
number of people they are feeding. They must work out quantities
construct
of ingredients, their cost and the price their customers will pay for
the food. They use algebra when they deal with ingredients and
prices.

Senior chefs may have to work out earnings, pension and tax
payments and sickness benefits for their staff. They use algebra
when they work out how many people they need to employ for
different catering events and how long each person will work
each week. They may also work out how much overtime they can
ask their workers to do. They may need to plan to employ extra
people.

Farm and ranch managers deal with the day-to-day activities of
the ranch or farm. They use algebra when they deal with the farm
accounts and write yearly business plans. If they grow crops they
need to plan how much fertiliser to apply and when to put it on
the crops. They may use quite complicated algebra, as lots of
different things have to be taken into account such as soil type,
crop to be grown, type of fertiliser, cost of fertiliser, etc. If they
have livestock they may use algebra to work out how much food to
give to the animals.

Actuaries work for insurance companies. They design insurance
plans that will help their company make a profit. They study data
and work out probabilities for events such as a person becoming
ill, injured or disabled. They work out how much the insurance
company might pay out for this event. Then they calculate how
much people have to pay for insurance. Actuaries need to be
very good at maths, even though they use computers. They use
algebra all the time to help calculate probabilities and estimate the
company’s profits.

In this unit you will use algebra in a variety of ways. You will learn
how to simplify expressions and expand brackets, and also how to
construct and solve equations.

9 Simplifying expressions and solving equations 95