Find a great variety of ways of asking questions which make 8.
Choose any three by three square of dates on a calendar page. Circle any number on the top row, put a line through the other numbers that are in the same row and column as your circled number. Repeat this for a number of your choice from the second row. You should now have just one number left on the bottom row, circle it. Find the total for the three numbers circled. Compare this total with the number in the centre of the square. What do you find? Can you explain why this happens?
For this challenge, you'll need to play Got It! Can you explain the strategy for winning this game with any target?
Daniel from Gateway Primary School, noted that:
It is hardest to get $12$ and negative $12$. You are most likely to get the low positive and negative numbers. You are least likely to get the high positive and negative numbers.
Jeremy from Longston School wrote:
I wrote a table of all the numbers you can get, and then looked at how many ways of making each number there are:
Then you can see that getting a $3$ or $-3$ are most likely to happen. So you should place a counter near the $3$ or $-3$ because then you are most likely to get it next turn, and then you will have two in a row.
Aidan commented:
Very well noticed by everyone. Can anyone add further comments?