Son's Yr-7 HW: write 3 Q's to isolate single shape from isos. trapezium, right trap.,

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My 11yr old son has been set the homework below & we don't know where to start? Can anyone please help


write 3 questions which will isolate a single shape from these 4 shapes.

isosceles trapezium
right angles trapezium
rectangle
kite.


 
Start by writing out the definition of each shape.
 
write 3 questions which will isolate a single shape from these 4 shapes.
isosceles trapezium
right angles trapezium
rectangle
kite.

I hope you have followed tkhunny's suggestion; you may not recognize how good it is! The definitions (or other lists of properties of the shapes) will tell you what things to ask about, so they are definitely the place to start.

The next thing I would do is to write some questions about those properties ("Does it have any parallel sides?"; "Are any of its sides equal?", ...) and make a table with a row for each question and a column for each shape. By checking off the answer to each question (yes, no, could be either), you can then search for a set of three questions for which the answers are unique for each shape.

There are some potentially tricky parts of this problem, which make it a really good challenge; for example, technically, a square fits the definitions of all four "shapes" (depending on the definitions you are using), so you're probably expected to assume the shape would be distinctively one type. Also, as I indicated, the answer to some questions will depend on which shape of a given type you have -- for example, a right angled trapezium might have two sides of the same length.

Also, I'm assuming the questions are meant to be true-false type, but that may not be true; maybe you are allowed to ask something like, "How many right angles are there?"
 
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