Part of a number line is shown. Only 6000 and 7000 are labelled, and the marks between them are equally spaced. What number does the arrow point to?
= 6600
Ans: 6600
How to solve it
Count the gaps between the two printed numbers, not the marks: 6 marks make only 5 gaps.
Share the difference over the gaps: 7000 minus 6000, divided by 5, so one gap is 200.
Count how many gaps the arrow is from the printed number before it. Here it is 3 gaps along from 6000.
Start at 6000 and add 3 times 200. The arrow points to 6600.
One gap has one value, and every gap on the line has the same one. So start from the number printed before the arrow, count on one gap at a time, and that is the reading.
Practice questions with worked solutions
Question 1 is free to try. The other 9 open in the free trial, each with its full working.
Question 1 of 10 · Basic · free to tryPart of a number line is shown. Only 2 and 3 are labelled, and the marks…Part of a number line is shown…
Part of a number line is shown. Only 2 and 3 are labelled, and the marks between them are equally spaced. What number does the arrow point to? Give your answer as a mixed number.
How do you read the mark in P5 number line and scale questions?
Number lines and measuring scales do not always split each step into ten.
What your child learns here
Number lines and measuring scales do not always split each step into ten. This page teaches a routine that works on any scale, and applies Primary 5 place value to number lines marked in large numbers, fractions and decimals.
Count the gaps between two labelled marks, not the marks themselves.
Divide the difference between the labels by the number of gaps to find the value of one gap.
Count on from the nearest labelled mark before the arrow.
One gap may be worth a fraction, a decimal or a large number such as 250.
Does the answer make sense?
When the arrow sits between two labels, your child's reading must lie between those two numbers and be nearer the label the arrow is closer to. When the arrow or mark is past the last label, the reading must be bigger than that label by a whole number of gaps.
How to practise these questions
Basic questions train finding the value of one gap on lines and scales and counting on to the marked position. Intermediate questions add marks beyond the last label and two readings whose difference is asked. Challenge questions use gaps smaller than a tenth and finish with a change of unit. If a scale reading goes astray, watch that question's solution film and try it again later from Revision.
Questions parents ask
How do I work out what each small mark is worth? Find the difference between two labelled marks and divide it by the number of gaps between them. That gives the value of one gap.
Is reading scales in the Primary 5 syllabus? The Primary 5 syllabus covers reading and writing numbers up to 10 million. Reading a marked number line or scale applies that place value, and equal parts, to a picture.
Do these questions use fractions and decimals too? Yes. The page includes scales marked in whole numbers, in fractions and in decimals, so one gap may be one eighth, 0.05 or 200.
