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How will you decide which way of flipping over and/or turning the grid will give you the highest total?
Numbers arranged in a square but some exceptional spatial awareness probably needed.
This article for teachers suggests ideas for activities built around 10 and 2010.
Suppose we allow ourselves to use three numbers less than 10 and multiply them together. How many different products can you find? How do you know you've got them all?
How many different shaped boxes can you design for 36 sweets in one layer? Can you arrange the sweets so that no sweets of the same colour are next to each other in any direction?
Investigate the different shaped bracelets you could make from 18 different spherical beads. How do they compare if you use 24 beads?
How many different ways can you find of fitting five hexagons together? How will you know you have found all the ways?
What happens if you join every second point on this circle? How about every third point? Try with different steps and see if you can predict what will happen.
When Charlie asked his grandmother how old she is, he didn't get a straightforward reply! Can you work out how old she is?
48 is called an abundant number because it is less than the sum of its factors (without itself). Can you find some more abundant numbers?
Place four pebbles on the sand in the form of a square. Keep adding as few pebbles as necessary to double the area. How many extra pebbles are added each time?
A challenging activity focusing on finding all possible ways of stacking rods.
"Ip dip sky blue! Who's 'it'? It's you!" Where would you position yourself so that you are 'it' if there are two players? Three players ...?
In how many ways can you stack these rods, following the rules?
How many different sets of numbers with at least four members can you find in the numbers in this box?
There are ten children in Becky's group. Can you find a set of numbers for each of them? Are there any other sets?
I like to walk along the cracks of the paving stones, but not the outside edge of the path itself. How many different routes can you find for me to take?
Take 5 cubes of one colour and 2 of another colour. How many different ways can you join them if the 5 must touch the table and the 2 must not touch the table?
If we had 16 light bars which digital numbers could we make? How will you know you've found them all?
Arrange eight of the numbers between 1 and 9 in the Polo Square below so that each side adds to the same total.
Well now, what would happen if we lost all the nines in our number system? Have a go at writing the numbers out in this way and have a look at the multiplications table.
Which times on a digital clock have a line of symmetry? Which look the same upside-down? You might like to try this investigation and find out!
This challenge is to design different step arrangements, which must go along a distance of 6 on the steps and must end up at 6 high.
How could you put eight beanbags in the hoops so that there are four in the blue hoop, five in the red and six in the yellow? Can you find all the ways of doing this?
In a Magic Square all the rows, columns and diagonals add to the 'Magic Constant'. How would you change the magic constant of this square?
An investigation that gives you the opportunity to make and justify predictions.
What happens when you add the digits of a number then multiply the result by 2 and you keep doing this? You could try for different numbers and different rules.
Explore Alex's number plumber. What questions would you like to ask? Don't forget to keep visiting NRICH projects site for the latest developments and questions.
Explore one of these five pictures.
This tricky challenge asks you to find ways of going across rectangles, going through exactly ten squares.
Explore Alex's number plumber. What questions would you like to ask? What do you think is happening to the numbers?
It starts quite simple but great opportunities for number discoveries and patterns!
If the answer's 2010, what could the question be?
Using different numbers of sticks, how many different triangles are you able to make? Can you make any rules about the numbers of sticks that make the most triangles?
An activity making various patterns with 2 x 1 rectangular tiles.
In this investigation, you must try to make houses using cubes. If the base must not spill over 4 squares and you have 7 cubes which stand for 7 rooms, what different designs can you come up with?
In this investigation, you are challenged to make mobile phone numbers which are easy to remember. What happens if you make a sequence adding 2 each time?
What is the smallest number of tiles needed to tile this patio? Can you investigate patios of different sizes?
How many shapes can you build from three red and two green cubes? Can you use what you've found out to predict the number for four red and two green?
This problem is based on the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Investigate the different numbers of people and rats there could have been if you know how many legs there are altogether!
Investigate the different ways you could split up these rooms so that you have double the number.
Let's suppose that you are going to have a magazine which has 16 pages of A5 size. Can you find some different ways to make these pages? Investigate the pattern for each if you number the pages.
If you have three circular objects, you could arrange them so that they are separate, touching, overlapping or inside each other. Can you investigate all the different possibilities?
Can you design a new shape for the twenty-eight squares and arrange the numbers in a logical way? What patterns do you notice?
How many ways can you find of tiling the square patio, using square tiles of different sizes?
This practical problem challenges you to create shapes and patterns with two different types of triangle. You could even try overlapping them.
Lolla bought a balloon at the circus. She gave the clown six coins to pay for it. What could Lolla have paid for the balloon?
Place the 16 different combinations of cup/saucer in this 4 by 4 arrangement so that no row or column contains more than one cup or saucer of the same colour.
When newspaper pages get separated at home we have to try to sort them out and get things in the correct order. How many ways can we arrange these pages so that the numbering may be different?
The challenge here is to find as many routes as you can for a fence to go so that this town is divided up into two halves, each with 8 blocks.