
Can you see how this picture illustrates the formula for the sum of the first six cube numbers?

We are given a regular icosahedron having three red vertices. Show that it has a vertex that has at least two red neighbours.

Mark a point P inside a closed curve. Is it always possible to find two points that lie on the curve, such that P is the mid point of the line joining these two points?

The picture illustrates the sum 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = (4 x 5)/2. Prove the general formula for the sum of the first n natural numbers and the formula for the sum of the cubes of the first n natural. . . .

Three frogs hopped onto the table. A red frog on the left a green in the middle and a blue frog on the right. Then frogs started jumping randomly over any adjacent frog. Is it possible for them to. . . .

Choose any two numbers. Call them a and b. Work out the arithmetic mean and the geometric mean. Which is bigger? Repeat for other pairs of numbers. What do you notice?

Some puzzles requiring no knowledge of knot theory, just a careful inspection of the patterns. A glimpse of the classification of knots and a little about prime knots, crossing numbers and. . . .

Can you visualise whether these nets fold up into 3D shapes? Watch the videos each time to see if you were correct.

A blue coin rolls round two yellow coins which touch. The coins are the same size. How many revolutions does the blue coin make when it rolls all the way round the yellow coins? Investigate for a. . . .

What happens to the perimeter of triangle ABC as the two smaller circles change size and roll around inside the bigger circle?

Explain why, when moving heavy objects on rollers, the object moves twice as fast as the rollers. Try a similar experiment yourself.

Use the diagram to investigate the classical Pythagorean means.

The triangle OMN has vertices on the axes with whole number co-ordinates. How many points with whole number coordinates are there on the hypotenuse MN?

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. . . .

The aim of the game is to slide the green square from the top right hand corner to the bottom left hand corner in the least number of moves.

Problem solving is at the heart of the NRICH site. All the problems give learners opportunities to learn, develop or use mathematical concepts and skills. Read here for more information.

If all the faces of a tetrahedron have the same perimeter then show that they are all congruent.

For any right-angled triangle find the radii of the three escribed circles touching the sides of the triangle externally.

This is a Dutch game for two players. It will test your powers of shape and space visualisation

Can you find a rule which relates triangular numbers to square numbers?

Can you find a rule which connects consecutive triangular numbers?

Show that all pentagonal numbers are one third of a triangular number.

Your data is a set of positive numbers. What is the maximum value that the standard deviation can take?

A cyclist and a runner start off simultaneously around a race track each going at a constant speed. The cyclist goes all the way around and then catches up with the runner. He then instantly turns. . . .

Build gnomons that are related to the Fibonacci sequence and try to explain why this is possible.

Place a red counter in the top left corner of a 4x4 array, which is covered by 14 other smaller counters, leaving a gap in the bottom right hand corner (HOME). What is the smallest number of moves. . . .

Mike and Monisha meet at the race track, which is 400m round. Just to make a point, Mike runs anticlockwise whilst Monisha runs clockwise. Where will they meet on their way around and will they ever. . . .

A ribbon runs around a box so that it makes a complete loop with two parallel pieces of ribbon on the top. How long will the ribbon be?

Have you got the Mach knack? Discover the mathematics behind exceeding the sound barrier.

This is a simple version of an ancient game played all over the world. It is also called Mancala. What tactics will increase your chances of winning?

There are 27 small cubes in a 3 x 3 x 3 cube, 54 faces being visible at any one time. Is it possible to reorganise these cubes so that by dipping the large cube into a pot of paint three times you. . . .

An irregular tetrahedron has two opposite sides the same length a and the line joining their midpoints is perpendicular to these two edges and is of length b. What is the volume of the tetrahedron?

Explore changes in solutions to cubic equations as you change the graph of the cubic polynomial. Track the real and complex roots.

Two boats travel up and down a lake. Can you picture where they will cross if you know how fast each boat is travelling?

See if you can anticipate successive 'generations' of the two animals shown here.

Can you recreate these designs? What are the basic units? What movement is required between each unit? Some elegant use of procedures will help - variables not essential.

Small circles nestle under touching parent circles when they sit on the axis at neighbouring points in a Farey sequence.

I found these clocks in the Arts Centre at the University of Warwick intriguing - do they really need four clocks and what times would be ambiguous with only two or three of them?

What can you see? What do you notice? What questions can you ask?

How efficiently can various flat shapes be fitted together?

A box of size a cm by b cm by c cm is to be wrapped with a square piece of wrapping paper. Without cutting the paper what is the smallest square this can be? Now suppose we want to wrap up a. . . .

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?

A square of area 3 square units cannot be drawn on a 2D grid so that each of its vertices have integer coordinates, but can it be drawn on a 3D grid? Investigate squares that can be drawn.

This is an interactive net of a Rubik's cube. Twists of the 3D cube become mixes of the squares on the 2D net. Have a play and see how many scrambles you can undo!

What 3D shapes occur in nature. How efficiently can you pack these shapes together?

Discover a way to sum square numbers by building cuboids from small cubes. Can you picture how the sequence will grow?