Mathematicians are always looking for efficient methods for solving problems. How efficient can you be?
What is the smallest number with exactly 14 divisors?
How many solutions can you find to this sum? Each of the different letters stands for a different number.
In a three-dimensional version of noughts and crosses, how many winning lines can you make?
Here's a chance to work with large numbers...
What is the largest number which, when divided into 1905, 2587,
3951, 7020 and 8725 in turn, leaves the same remainder each time?
Sissa cleverly asked the King for a reward that sounded quite modest but turned out to be rather large...
A spider is sitting in the middle of one of the smallest walls in a
room and a fly is resting beside the window. What is the shortest
distance the spider would have to crawl to catch the fly?
Different combinations of the weights available allow you to make different totals. Which totals can you make?
Some people offer advice on how to win at games of chance, or how
to influence probability in your favour. Can you decide whether
advice is good or not?
The clues for this Sudoku are the product of the numbers in adjacent squares.
Investigate how you can work out what day of the week your birthday will be on next year, and the year after...
A country has decided to have just two different coins, 3z and 5z
coins. Which totals can be made? Is there a largest total that
cannot be made? How do you know?
My two digit number is special because adding the sum of its digits to the product of its digits gives me my original number. What could my number be?
Can you guarantee that, for any three numbers you choose, the
product of their differences will always be an even number?
A game for 2 or more people, based on the traditional card game
Rummy. Players aim to make two `tricks', where each trick has to
consist of a picture of a shape, a name that describes that shape,
and. . . .
Do you know a quick way to check if a number is a multiple of two? How about three, four or six?
Why does this fold create an angle of sixty degrees?
If you are given the mean, median and mode of five positive whole numbers, can you find the numbers?
Each of the following shapes is made from arcs of a circle of
radius r. What is the perimeter of a shape with 3, 4, 5 and n
Find a cuboid (with edges of integer values) that has a surface
area of exactly 100 square units. Is there more than one? Can you
find them all?
Think of two whole numbers under 10. Take one of them and add 1. Multiply by 5. Add 1 again. Double your answer. Subract 1. Add your second number. Add 2. Double again. Subtract 8. Halve this number. . . .
Start with two numbers. This is the start of a sequence. The next
number is the average of the last two numbers. Continue the
sequence. What will happen if you carry on for ever?
Five children went into the sweet shop after school. There were
choco bars, chews, mini eggs and lollypops, all costing under 50p.
Suggest a way in which Nathan could spend all his money.
Imagine you have a large supply of 3kg and 8kg weights. How many of each weight would you need for the average (mean) of the weights to be 6kg? What other averages could you have?
Triangle ABC is isosceles while triangle DEF is equilateral. Find
one angle in terms of the other two.
Can you describe this route to infinity? Where will the arrows take you next?
It is known that the area of the largest equilateral triangular
section of a cube is 140sq cm. What is the side length of the cube?
The distances between the centres of two adjacent faces of. . . .
An observer is on top of a lighthouse. How far from the foot of the lighthouse is the horizon that the observer can see?
How many pairs of numbers can you find that add up to a multiple of 11? Do you notice anything interesting about your results?
Can you find an efficient method to work out how many handshakes
there would be if hundreds of people met?
A hexagon, with sides alternately a and b units in length, is
inscribed in a circle. How big is the radius of the circle?
Here are four tiles. They can be arranged in a 2 by 2 square so that this large square has a green edge. If the tiles are moved around, we can make a 2 by 2 square with a blue edge... Now try to. . . .
Two motorboats travelling up and down a lake at constant speeds
leave opposite ends A and B at the same instant, passing each
other, for the first time 600 metres from A, and on their return,
400. . . .
Can you find rectangles where the value of the area is the same as the value of the perimeter?
In 15 years' time my age will be the square of my age 15 years ago.
Can you work out my age, and when I had other special birthdays?
Water freezes at 0°Celsius (32°Fahrenheit) and boils at 100°C (212°Fahrenheit). Is there a temperature at which Celsius and Fahrenheit readings are the same?
The area of a square inscribed in a circle with a unit radius is,
satisfyingly, 2. What is the area of a regular hexagon inscribed in
a circle with a unit radius?
There are four children in a family, two girls, Kate and Sally, and
two boys, Tom and Ben. How old are the children?
If: A + C = A; F x D = F; B - G = G; A + H = E; B / H = G; E - G =
F and A-H represent the numbers from 0 to 7 Find the values of A,
B, C, D, E, F and H.
What is the greatest volume you can get for a rectangular (cuboid)
parcel if the maximum combined length and girth are 2 metres?
What does this number mean ? Which order of 1, 2, 3 and 4 makes the
highest value ? Which makes the lowest ?
The number 2.525252525252.... can be written as a fraction. What is
the sum of the denominator and numerator?
A jigsaw where pieces only go together if the fractions are
Ben passed a third of his counters to Jack, Jack passed a quarter
of his counters to Emma and Emma passed a fifth of her counters to
Ben. After this they all had the same number of counters.
A decorator can buy pink paint from two manufacturers. What is the
least number he would need of each type in order to produce
different shades of pink.
Play the divisibility game to create numbers in which the first two digits make a number divisible by 2, the first three digits make a number divisible by 3...
Some 4 digit numbers can be written as the product of a 3 digit
number and a 2 digit number using the digits 1 to 9 each once and
only once. The number 4396 can be written as just such a product.
Can. . . .
Powers of numbers behave in surprising ways. Take a look at some of these and try to explain why they are true.
Do you notice anything about the solutions when you add and/or
subtract consecutive negative numbers?