Time and Travel — NSW Year 8 Maths
Time zones, scale maps, informal graphs, speed, time differences and travel graphs. Six subtopics and 120 practice questions, each with a fully worked solution, aligned to NESA outcomes MA4-RAT-C-01 and MA4-INT-C-01.
Time and Travel in NSW Year 8
Time and Travel applies Year 8 maths to journeys: working out the time in another country, reading distances from a scale map, finding speeds and average speeds, and interpreting graphs of a trip. Many questions mix these skills, such as a flight that crosses time zones or a bushwalk measured on a map and timed at a steady walking speed.
The six subtopics below cover international time zones, scale maps and plans, sketching informal graphs, speed, time differences and travel graphs. Time and Travel is the last of the 14 topics in NSW Year 8 Maths and sits in the Number and Algebra strand: scale, speed and distance–time graphs come under NESA outcome MA4‑RAT‑C‑01, time zones are worked with integers under MA4‑INT‑C‑01, and elapsed-time calculations consolidate earlier work. In Stage 5, graphs of journeys lead on to rates of change and to curved graphs where the speed varies.
Subtopics
Time and Travel: common questions
How do you work out the time in another time zone?
Find the difference between the two UTC offsets, then add it if the other place is ahead or subtract it if it is behind. Perth (UTC+8) is 2 hours behind Sydney on standard time (UTC+10), so 3:00 pm in Sydney is 1:00 pm in Perth.
What does a map scale mean?
A scale of \(1:25\,000\) means every length on the map stands for 25 000 times as much in real life. So 4 cm on the map is 100 000 cm, which is 1 km.
How do you find the average speed for a whole trip?
Divide the total distance by the total time, including any stops. A trip of 90 km in 1.5 hours, a 30-minute stop and then 60 km in 1 hour covers 150 km in 3 hours, so the average speed is \(150 \div 3 = 50\) km/h.
Which NESA outcomes cover time and travel?
Scale, speed and distance–time graphs sit in Stage 4 of the NSW Mathematics K–10 Syllabus (2022) under MA4‑RAT‑C‑01, and time zones are calculated with integers under MA4‑INT‑C‑01. Elapsed-time skills revise earlier stages, and the container-filling graphs give a first look at Stage 5 ideas.
What does a flat section on a travel graph mean?
The distance from the start is not changing, so the traveller has stopped. A section going up means moving away, a section going down means coming back, and the steeper a section is, the faster the speed.