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Money · Ages 10+ · Set A
Prices that doubled overnight
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Remember: When there is too much money for the same goods, each note buys less. Things people need keep their worth better.

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The notes of QuillbyIn the made-up village of Quillby, Dani wove cloth and was paid ten notes each noon. A loaf of Mira's bread cost two notes, so ten notes bought five loaves. Most of the time, prices creep up a little each year, and that slow creep is called inflation. But then the mayor had big bills, so Quillby printed lots of new notes. Soon notes were everywhere, but there was not one extra loaf of bread. That night prices doubled: a loaf went from two notes to four. The next night it doubled again. Dani learned to spend her notes the moment she was paid, before prices jumped. Notes saved in a jar bought less every day. So Quillby went back to swapping cloth for flour and flour for bread, because things kept their worth better than notes. A time like this really happened in the 1920s in one country in Europe, where people carried bags and wheelbarrows of money to buy a loaf.
1
The table shows how many loaves ten notes buy each day. On which day do they buy exactly one?
Day 2Day 4Day 3
2
The price doubles every night. Fill in the gap for day 3: a loaf costs notes.
3
The bars show the cost of a loaf. Which pattern do they show?
Adding 2 each nightStaying the sameDoubling each night
4
Dani has 10 notes. On day 2 a loaf costs 4 notes. She can buy whole loaves.
5
Doubling a loaf's price three nights in a row makes a two-note loaf cost six notes.
TrueFalse

Order, match and think

6
Why does each note buy less when Quillby prints lots of notes?
There are more notes but the same amount of breadThe bread got biggerMira stopped baking
7
Number what happened in Quillby.
  • People go back to swapping things
  • Dani spends her notes the moment she is paid
  • Prices double overnight
  • Quillby prints lots of new notes
8
Join each to what happens when prices run away.
  1. 1A sack of flour
  2. 2Notes saved in a jar
  3. 3Notes spent at once
  4. 4A bolt of cloth
  • Abuy more than if she waits
  • Bstill wanted by people
  • Cstill useful tomorrow
  • Dbuy less every day
9
Dani says: if I wait a day to shop, my ten notes still buy five loaves. Is Dani right?
YesNo
10
Circle every true sentence about inflation.
Inflation is prices rising across the shopsA slow rise is always a disasterMost of the time prices creep up slowlyIt has never happened in real lifeIn a runaway time, savings can shrink to almost nothing
11
How does a runaway time like this end?
Prices fall back by themselves the next nightThe printing stops and a steadier money takes its placePeople spend even faster
12
Ask a grown-up what a loaf of bread cost when they were your age. Write the price.
13
Draw ten notes. Then draw how many loaves they buy on day 2.
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Answer key · Set A
Prices that doubled overnight
1Day 3 On day 3 a loaf costs 8 notes, so ten notes buy just one.
28 Day 2 is 4 notes, and 4 × 2 = 8.
3Doubling each night 2, 4, 8, 16 doubles each night. Adding 2 would give 2, 4, 6, 8.
42 4 + 4 = 8 notes buys two loaves, and a third would need 12.
5False Two, four, eight, sixteen: it costs sixteen notes. Six is what adding two each night would give.
6There are more notes but the same amount of bread More money chasing the same bread means each note buys less.
74, 3, 2, 1 Printing came first, then the doubling, then Dani's rush to spend, and last the swapping.
81-C, 2-D, 3-A, 4-B Things people need keep their worth. Saved notes lose it, so Dani spent hers at once.
9No After a night the price doubles, so on day 2 her ten notes buy only two loaves.
10Inflation is prices rising across the shops, Most of the time prices creep up slowly, In a runaway time, savings can shrink to almost nothing A slow creep is normal and hardly noticed. A runaway time has really happened in a few countries.
11The printing stops and a steadier money takes its place Then people must trust the new money again, and that takes time.
12Your own words: a grown-up reads it.
Mark each answer, count the right ones and write the score on the sheet.