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Resources tagged with Working systematically similar to Odd Squares:

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Broad Topics > Using, Applying and Reasoning about Mathematics > Working systematically

Map Folding

Stage: 2 Challenge Level:

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?

Waiting for Blast Off

Stage: 2 Challenge Level:

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?

Triangles to Tetrahedra

Stage: 3 Challenge Level:

Starting with four different triangles, imagine you have an unlimited number of each type. How many different tetrahedra can you make? Convince us you have found them all.

When Will You Pay Me? Say the Bells of Old Bailey

Stage: 3 Challenge Level:

Use the interactivity to play two of the bells in a pattern. How do you know when it is your turn to ring, and how do you know which bell to ring?

You Owe Me Five Farthings, Say the Bells of St Martin's

Stage: 3 Challenge Level:

Use the interactivity to listen to the bells ringing a pattern. Now it's your turn! Play one of the bells yourself. How do you know when it is your turn to ring?

Shunting Puzzle

Stage: 2 Challenge Level:

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?

Single Track

Stage: 2 Challenge Level:

What is the best way to shunt these carriages so that each train can continue its journey?

Red Even

Stage: 2 Challenge Level:

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?

Display Boards

Stage: 2 Challenge Level:

Design an arrangement of display boards in the school hall which fits the requirements of different people.

Cuboid-in-a-box

Stage: 2 Challenge Level:

What is the smallest cuboid that you can put in this box so that you cannot fit another that's the same into it?

Stage: 2 Challenge Level:

How many DIFFERENT quadrilaterals can be made by joining the dots on the 8-point circle?

Square Corners

Stage: 2 Challenge Level:

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?

Knight's Swap

Stage: 2 Challenge Level:

Swap the stars with the moons, using only knights' moves (as on a chess board). What is the smallest number of moves possible?

Broken Toaster

Stage: 2 Short Challenge Level:

Only one side of a two-slice toaster is working. What is the quickest way to toast both sides of three slices of bread?

A Right Charlie

Stage: 2 Challenge Level:

Can you use this information to work out Charlie's house number?

Two on Five

Stage: 1 and 2 Challenge Level:

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?

Sticks and Triangles

Stage: 2 Challenge Level:

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?

Celtic Knot

Stage: 2 Challenge Level:

Building up a simple Celtic knot. Try the interactivity or download the cards or have a go on squared paper.

Hexpentas

Stage: 1 and 2 Challenge Level:

How many different ways can you find of fitting five hexagons together? How will you know you have found all the ways?

Button-up Some More

Stage: 2 Challenge Level:

How many ways can you find to do up all four buttons on my coat? How about if I had five buttons? Six ...?

3 Sets of Cubes, 2 Surfaces

Stage: 2 Challenge Level:

How many models can you find which obey these rules?

Cover the Tray

Stage: 2 Challenge Level:

These practical challenges are all about making a 'tray' and covering it with paper.

Putting Two and Two Together

Stage: 2 Challenge Level:

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?

Arrangements

Stage: 2 Challenge Level:

Is it possible to place 2 counters on the 3 by 3 grid so that there is an even number of counters in every row and every column? How about if you have 3 counters or 4 counters or....?

Counting Cards

Stage: 2 Challenge Level:

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?

Stage: 2 Challenge Level:

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.

Two by One

Stage: 2 Challenge Level:

An activity making various patterns with 2 x 1 rectangular tiles.

Counters

Stage: 2 Challenge Level:

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?

Paw Prints

Stage: 2 Challenge Level:

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?

Tetrafit

Stage: 2 Challenge Level:

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?

Seven Flipped

Stage: 2 Challenge Level:

Investigate the smallest number of moves it takes to turn these mats upside-down if you can only turn exactly three at a time.

Tetrahedra Tester

Stage: 3 Challenge Level:

An irregular tetrahedron is composed of four different triangles. Can such a tetrahedron be constructed where the side lengths are 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 units of length?

Four Triangles Puzzle

Stage: 1 and 2 Challenge Level:

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?

Stage: 3 Challenge Level:

How many different symmetrical shapes can you make by shading triangles or squares?

Seven Square Numbers

Stage: 2 Challenge Level:

Add the sum of the squares of four numbers between 10 and 20 to the sum of the squares of three numbers less than 6 to make the square of another, larger, number.

Calendar Cubes

Stage: 2 Challenge Level:

Make a pair of cubes that can be moved to show all the days of the month from the 1st to the 31st.

Curious Number

Stage: 2 Challenge Level:

Can you order the digits from 1-3 to make a number which is divisible by 3 so when the last digit is removed it becomes a 2-figure number divisible by 2, and so on?

Snails' Trails

Stage: 2 Challenge Level:

Alice and Brian are snails who live on a wall and can only travel along the cracks. Alice wants to go to see Brian. How far is the shortest route along the cracks? Is there more than one way to go?

Arranging the Tables

Stage: 2 Challenge Level:

There are 44 people coming to a dinner party. There are 15 square tables that seat 4 people. Find a way to seat the 44 people using all 15 tables, with no empty places.

The Pied Piper of Hamelin

Stage: 2 Challenge Level:

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!

More and More Buckets

Stage: 2 Challenge Level:

In this challenge, buckets come in five different sizes. If you choose some buckets, can you investigate the different ways in which they can be filled?

Neighbours

Stage: 2 Challenge Level:

In a square in which the houses are evenly spaced, numbers 3 and 10 are opposite each other. What is the smallest and what is the largest possible number of houses in the square?

One to Fifteen

Stage: 2 Challenge Level:

Can you put the numbers from 1 to 15 on the circles so that no consecutive numbers lie anywhere along a continuous straight line?

Isosceles Triangles

Stage: 3 Challenge Level:

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?

Fence It

Stage: 3 Challenge Level:

If you have only 40 metres of fencing available, what is the maximum area of land you can fence off?

Sticky Numbers

Stage: 3 Challenge Level:

Can you arrange the numbers 1 to 17 in a row so that each adjacent pair adds up to a square number?

The Pet Graph

Stage: 2 Challenge Level:

Tim's class collected data about all their pets. Can you put the animal names under each column in the block graph using the information?

More Magic Potting Sheds

Stage: 3 Challenge Level:

The number of plants in Mr McGregor's magic potting shed increases overnight. He'd like to put the same number of plants in each of his gardens, planting one garden each day. How can he do it?

Rolling That Cube

Stage: 1 and 2 Challenge Level:

My cube has inky marks on each face. Can you find the route it has taken? What does each face look like?

Dodecamagic

Stage: 2 Challenge Level:

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?