Filter by: Content type: ALL Problems Articles Games Stage: All Stage 1&2 Stage 2&3 Stage 3&4 Stage 4&5 Challenge level:
How many models can you find which obey these rules?
Here are four cubes joined together. How many other arrangements of four cubes can you find? Can you draw them on dotty paper?
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?
Arrange 9 red cubes, 9 blue cubes and 9 yellow cubes into a large 3 by 3 cube. No row or column of cubes must contain two cubes of the same colour.
When intergalactic Wag Worms are born they look just like a cube. Each year they grow another cube in any direction. Find all the shapes that five-year-old Wag Worms can be.
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?
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.
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?
Nina must cook some pasta for 15 minutes but she only has a 7-minute sand-timer and an 11-minute sand-timer. How can she use these timers to measure exactly 15 minutes?
Investigate the different ways you could split up these rooms so that you have double the number.
Place eight queens on an chessboard (an 8 by 8 grid) so that none can capture any of the others.
Place the numbers 1 to 8 in the circles so that no consecutive numbers are joined by a line.
You cannot choose a selection of ice cream flavours that includes totally what someone has already chosen. Have a go and find all the different ways in which seven children can have ice cream.
This magic square has operations written in it, to make it into a maze. Start wherever you like, go through every cell and go out a total of 15!
If we had 16 light bars which digital numbers could we make? How will you know you've found them all?
How many ways can you find to do up all four buttons on my coat? How about if I had five buttons? Six ...?
This activity investigates how you might make squares and pentominoes from Polydron.
These activities lend themselves to systematic working in the sense that it helps if you have an ordered approach.
Using the statements, can you work out how many of each type of rabbit there are in these pens?
A merchant brings four bars of gold to a jeweller. How can the jeweller use the scales just twice to identify the lighter, fake bar?
A thoughtful shepherd used bales of straw to protect the area around his lambs. Explore how you can arrange the bales.
Let's say you can only use two different lengths - 2 units and 4 units. Using just these 2 lengths as the edges how many different cuboids can you make?
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?
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!
Can you order pictures of the development of a frog from frogspawn and of a bean seed growing into a plant?
Can you rearrange the biscuits on the plates so that the three biscuits on each plate are all different and there is no plate with two biscuits the same as two biscuits on another plate?
The planet of Vuvv has seven moons. Can you work out how long it is between each super-eclipse?
What could the half time scores have been in these Olympic hockey matches?
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?
On a digital 24 hour clock, at certain times, all the digits are consecutive. How many times like this are there between midnight and 7 a.m.?
Swap the stars with the moons, using only knights' moves (as on a chess board). What is the smallest number of moves possible?
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?
Can you put the 25 coloured tiles into the 5 x 5 square so that no column, no row and no diagonal line have tiles of the same colour in them?
Try out the lottery that is played in a far-away land. What is the chance of winning?
My cube has inky marks on each face. Can you find the route it has taken? What does each face look like?
How many DIFFERENT quadrilaterals can be made by joining the dots on the 8-point circle?
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 these three beads into bags? How many different ways can you do it? How could you record what you've done?
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?
Can you put the numbers from 1 to 15 on the circles so that no consecutive numbers lie anywhere along a continuous straight line?
There are 4 jugs which hold 9 litres, 7 litres, 4 litres and 2 litres. Find a way to pour 9 litres of drink from one jug to another until you are left with exactly 3 litres in three of the jugs.
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?
How many different ways can you find of fitting five hexagons together? How will you know you have found all the ways?
This 100 square jigsaw is written in code. It starts with 1 and ends with 100. Can you build it up?
Are all the possible combinations of two shapes included in this set of 27 cards? How do you know?
How can you put five cereal packets together to make different shapes if you must put them face-to-face?
Arrange eight of the numbers between 1 and 9 in the Polo Square below so that each side adds to the same total.
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?
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?
Zumf makes spectacles for the residents of the planet Zargon, who have either 3 eyes or 4 eyes. How many lenses will Zumf need to make all the different orders for 9 families?