Colouring Triangles

Stage: 1 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:2 Challenge Level:2

Children from Dennington Primary School have worked very hard on this problem. Julia and Ryan have each found a different way of making a symmetrical pattern with two colours:

triangle coloured with red and blue in symmetrical design
triangle coloured with blue and black symmetrically

Julia also used three colours to create this symmetrical pattern and has drawn in the line of symmetry too:

yellow, red and blue coloured triangle

Ben has used the white background with two other colours to make these designs:

three more symmetrical triangles, each using three colours

Kesavan from Latymer All Saints C of E Primary sent the following designs, which all have a vertical line of symmetry:

Rebecca looked at ways of colouring the small triangles with four colours so that no two triangles of the same colour are side by side:

one way to colour little triangles using four different colours
a second way to colour little triangles using four different colours
a third way to colour little triangles using four different colours

Published April 2000,January 2009.