鶹Լ

How to compare money

In this lesson we will use our knowledge of place value to order and compare amounts of money.

For some questions you may need to convert between pounds and pence.

Remember

£1 = 100p. That means that when we convert from pounds to pence we x by 100 and when we convert from pence to pounds we ÷ by 100.

Back to top

Example 1

Is 428p greater than, less than or the same as £4.82?

To compare the two amounts we need to convert both to the same unit of measure.

In this example, we are going to convert the pounds into pence.

428p and  £4.82

To go from pounds to pence we multiply by 100 so the calculation is 4.82 x 100.

This place value chart can help us work out the answer.

4.82 x 100 4.82 on a place value char

When we multiply by 100, each of the digits moves 2 places to the left so we can see that 4.82 x 100 = 482.

Two place charts, one showing 4.82 and one showing 482.

Now we have converted from pounds to pence the next step is to use our knowledge of place value to compare the two numbers.

When we compare we start with the column furthest to the left.

  • Both numbers have 4 hundreds so we move along to the tens.

  • 428p has 2 tens and 482p has 8 tens.

8 tens are bigger than 2 tens so 482 is the bigger number.

428p and 482p represented on a place value chart.

This means the completed statement is 428p < £4.82.

428p < £4.82.
Back to top

Example 2

In this slideshow we will compare 3 amounts of money and place the amounts in ascending order.

Image gallerySkip image gallerySlide 1 of 7, £52.10, 5215p and 5201p., In order to compare the three amounts we will first convert the pence to pounds.
Back to top

Activities

Quiz

Ordering money

Have a go at ordering money in this quiz. It might help to convert some of the amounts on paper first before you try to place them in the correct order.

Back to top

NEW! Play Guardians: Defenders of Mathematica - the Halloween update. game

Experience Mathematica as you’ve never seen it before, with all-new backgrounds and costumes for Halloween. Available for a limited time only. Use your maths skills to save the day before it's too late!

NEW! Play Guardians: Defenders of Mathematica - the Halloween update
Back to top

More on Money

Find out more by working through a topic