Filter by: Content type: ALL Problems Articles Games Stage: All Stage 1&2 Stage 2&3 Stage 3&4 Stage 4&5 Challenge level:
What happens to the area of a square if you double the length of the sides? Try the same thing with rectangles, diamonds and other shapes. How do the four smaller ones fit into the larger one?
Can you find ways of joining cubes together so that 28 faces are visible?
Swap the stars with the moons, using only knights' moves (as on a chess board). What is the smallest number of moves possible?
A dog is looking for a good place to bury his bone. Can you work out where he started and ended in each case? What possible routes could he have taken?
What is the smallest cuboid that you can put in this box so that you cannot fit another that's the same into it?
10 space travellers are waiting to board their spaceships. There are two rows of seats in the waiting room. Using the rules, where are they all sitting? Can you find all the possible ways?
Building up a simple Celtic knot. Try the interactivity or download the cards or have a go on squared paper.
Take a rectangle of paper and fold it in half, and half again, to make four smaller rectangles. How many different ways can you fold it up?
What is the best way to shunt these carriages so that each train can continue its journey?
How can you arrange the 5 cubes so that you need the smallest number of Brush Loads of paint to cover them? Try with other numbers of cubes as well.
Can you shunt the trucks so that the Cattle truck and the Sheep truck change places and the Engine is back on the main line?
You have 4 red and 5 blue counters. How many ways can they be placed on a 3 by 3 grid so that all the rows columns and diagonals have an even number of red counters?
This 100 square jigsaw is written in code. It starts with 1 and ends with 100. Can you build it up?
How many DIFFERENT quadrilaterals can be made by joining the dots on the 8-point circle?
Hover your mouse over the counters to see which ones will be removed. Click to remover them. The winner is the last one to remove a counter. How you can make sure you win?
How many different cuboids can you make when you use four CDs or DVDs? How about using five, then six?
A tetromino is made up of four squares joined edge to edge. Can this tetromino, together with 15 copies of itself, be used to cover an eight by eight chessboard?
How many different ways can you find of fitting five hexagons together? How will you know you have found all the ways?
How many different triangles can you make on a circular pegboard that has nine pegs?
A magician took a suit of thirteen cards and held them in his hand face down. Every card he revealed had the same value as the one he had just finished spelling. How did this work?
Investigate the number of paths you can take from one vertex to another in these 3D shapes. Is it possible to take an odd number and an even number of paths to the same vertex?
A train leaves on time. After it has gone 8 miles (at 33mph) the driver looks at his watch and sees that the hour hand is exactly over the minute hand. When did the train leave the station?
What is the greatest number of counters you can place on the grid below without four of them lying at the corners of a square?
Cut four triangles from a square as shown in the picture. How many different shapes can you make by fitting the four triangles back together?
A circle rolls around the outside edge of a square so that its circumference always touches the edge of the square. Can you describe the locus of the centre of the circle?
This challenge involves eight three-cube models made from interlocking cubes. Investigate different ways of putting the models together then compare your constructions.
In how many ways can you fit two of these yellow triangles together? Can you predict the number of ways two blue triangles can be fitted together?
Here you see the front and back views of a dodecahedron. Each vertex has been numbered so that the numbers around each pentagonal face add up to 65. Can you find all the missing numbers?
A bus route has a total duration of 40 minutes. Every 10 minutes, two buses set out, one from each end. How many buses will one bus meet on its way from one end to the other end?
Can you fit the tangram pieces into the outline of these convex shapes?
Can you make a 3x3 cube with these shapes made from small cubes?
Can you fit the tangram pieces into the outline of this telephone?
Can you fit the tangram pieces into the outline of the telescope and microscope?
If you have only 40 metres of fencing available, what is the maximum area of land you can fence off?
Can you fit the tangram pieces into the outline of this plaque design?
Here's a simple way to make a Tangram without any measuring or ruling lines.
Can you fit the tangram pieces into the outline of this junk?
Use the lines on this figure to show how the square can be divided into 2 halves, 3 thirds, 6 sixths and 9 ninths.
At the time of writing the hour and minute hands of my clock are at right angles. How long will it be before they are at right angles again?
Draw some isosceles triangles with an area of $9$cm$^2$ and a vertex at (20,20). If all the vertices must have whole number coordinates, how many is it possible to draw?
Looking at the picture of this Jomista Mat, can you decribe what you see? Why not try and make one yourself?
Can you fit the tangram pieces into the outline of this goat and giraffe?
Can you fit the tangram pieces into the outline of the rocket?
Can you fit the tangram pieces into the outline of this sports car?
We start with one yellow cube and build around it to make a 3x3x3 cube with red cubes. Then we build around that red cube with blue cubes and so on. How many cubes of each colour have we used?
Is it possible to rearrange the numbers 1,2......12 around a clock face in such a way that every two numbers in adjacent positions differ by any of 3, 4 or 5 hours?
You can move the 4 pieces of the jigsaw and fit them into both outlines. Explain what has happened to the missing one unit of area.
Can you fit the tangram pieces into the outlines of the watering can and man in a boat?
Can you fit the tangram pieces into the outlines of Mai Ling and Chi Wing?
Can you fit the tangram pieces into the outlines of the candle and sundial?