Filter by: Content type: ALL Problems Articles Games Stage: All Stage 1&2 Stage 2&3 Stage 3&4 Stage 4&5 Challenge level:
A 2 by 3 rectangle contains 8 squares and a 3 by 4 rectangle contains 20 squares. What size rectangle(s) contain(s) exactly 100 squares? Can you find them all?
How many different symmetrical shapes can you make by shading triangles or squares?
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?
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?
The NRICH team are always looking for new ways to engage teachers and pupils in problem solving. Here we explain the thinking behind maths trails.
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.
Many numbers can be expressed as the sum of two or more consecutive integers. For example, 15=7+8 and 10=1+2+3+4. Can you say which numbers can be expressed in this way?
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?
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?
Given the products of diagonally opposite cells - can you complete this Sudoku?
A Sudoku with clues as ratios or fractions.
Charlie and Lynne put a counter on 42. They wondered if they could visit all the other numbers on their 1-100 board, moving the counter using just these two operations: x2 and -5. What do you think?
This second Sudoku article discusses "Corresponding Sudokus" which are pairs of Sudokus with terms that can be matched using a substitution rule.
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.
This article for teachers describes several games, found on the site, all of which have a related structure that can be used to develop the skills of strategic planning.
Can you arrange the numbers 1 to 17 in a row so that each adjacent pair adds up to a square number?
Two sudokus in one. Challenge yourself to make the necessary connections.
Find a cuboid (with edges of integer values) that has a surface area of exactly 100 square units. Is there more than one? Can you find them all?
A Sudoku that uses transformations as supporting clues.
A Sudoku with clues as ratios.
Four numbers on an intersection that need to be placed in the surrounding cells. That is all you need to know to solve this sudoku.
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?
A Sudoku with a twist.
This pair of linked Sudokus matches letters with numbers and hides a seasonal greeting. Can you find it?
My two digit number is special because adding the sum of its digits to the product of its digits gives me my original number. What could my number be?
Label the joints and legs of these graph theory caterpillars so that the vertex sums are all equal.
Find all the ways of placing the numbers 1 to 9 on a W shape, with 3 numbers on each leg, so that each set of 3 numbers has the same total.
A Sudoku based on clues that give the differences between adjacent cells.
Do you notice anything about the solutions when you add and/or subtract consecutive negative numbers?
You have been given nine weights, one of which is slightly heavier than the rest. Can you work out which weight is heavier in just two weighings of the balance?
This sudoku requires you to have "double vision" - two Sudoku's for the price of one
A Sudoku with clues given as sums of entries.
Label this plum tree graph to make it totally magic!
Solve this Sudoku puzzle whose clues are in the form of sums of the numbers which should appear in diagonal opposite cells.
This is a variation of sudoku which contains a set of special clue-numbers. Each set of 4 small digits stands for the numbers in the four cells of the grid adjacent to this set.
Explore this how this program produces the sequences it does. What are you controlling when you change the values of the variables?
A pair of Sudoku puzzles that together lead to a complete solution.
If you are given the mean, median and mode of five positive whole numbers, can you find the numbers?
This Sudoku combines all four arithmetic operations.
Play the divisibility game to create numbers in which the first two digits make a number divisible by 2, the first three digits make a number divisible by 3...
You need to find the values of the stars before you can apply normal Sudoku rules.
The puzzle can be solved by finding the values of the unknown digits (all indicated by asterisks) in the squares of the $9\times9$ grid.
A Latin square of order n is an array of n symbols in which each symbol occurs exactly once in each row and exactly once in each column.
Use the differences to find the solution to this Sudoku.
The puzzle can be solved with the help of small clue-numbers which are either placed on the border lines between selected pairs of neighbouring squares of the grid or placed after slash marks on. . . .
If you have only 40 metres of fencing available, what is the maximum area of land you can fence off?
This Sudoku, based on differences. Using the one clue number can you find the solution?