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We're excited about this new program for drawing beautiful mathematical designs. Can you work out how we made our first few pictures and, even better, share your most elegant solutions with us?
Imagine a stack of numbered cards with one on top. Discard the top, put the next card to the bottom and repeat continuously. Can you predict the last card?
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.
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?
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?
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.
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?
A Sudoku with clues as ratios or fractions.
Given the products of diagonally opposite cells - can you complete this Sudoku?
A Sudoku with clues as ratios.
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?
A Sudoku that uses transformations as supporting clues.
This Sudoku combines all four arithmetic operations.
In this Sudoku, there are three coloured "islands" in the 9x9 grid. Within each "island" EVERY group of nine cells that form a 3x3 square must contain the numbers 1 through 9.
Two sudokus in one. Challenge yourself to make the necessary connections.
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.
How have "Warmsnug" arrived at the prices shown on their windows? Which window has been given an incorrect price?
Each clue number in this sudoku is the product of the two numbers in adjacent cells.
This Sudoku puzzle can be solved with the help of small clue-numbers on the border lines between pairs of neighbouring squares of the grid.
Bellringers have a special way to write down the patterns they ring. Learn about these patterns and draw some of your own.
A pair of Sudokus with lots in common. In fact they are the same problem but rearranged. Can you find how they relate to solve them both?
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.
This pair of linked Sudokus matches letters with numbers and hides a seasonal greeting. Can you find it?
Use the differences to find the solution to this Sudoku.
Four small numbers give the clue to the contents of the four surrounding cells.
A Sudoku with a twist.
There is a long tradition of creating mazes throughout history and across the world. This article gives details of mazes you can visit and those that you can tackle on paper.
Do you notice anything about the solutions when you add and/or subtract consecutive negative numbers?
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.
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?
This Sudoku, based on differences. Using the one clue number can you find the solution?
You need to find the values of the stars before you can apply normal Sudoku rules.
A pair of Sudoku puzzles that together lead to a complete solution.
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. . . .
This second Sudoku article discusses "Corresponding Sudokus" which are pairs of Sudokus with terms that can be matched using a substitution rule.
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?
A Sudoku with clues given as sums of entries.
How many different symmetrical shapes can you make by shading triangles or squares?
Can you arrange the numbers 1 to 17 in a row so that each adjacent pair adds up to a square number?
Solve this Sudoku puzzle whose clues are in the form of sums of the numbers which should appear in diagonal opposite cells.
Each of the main diagonals of this sudoku must contain the numbers 1 to 9 and each rectangle width the numbers 1 to 4.
Arrange the digits 1, 1, 2, 2, 3 and 3 so that between the two 1's there is one digit, between the two 2's there are two digits, and between the two 3's there are three digits.
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?
Solve the equations to identify the clue numbers in this Sudoku problem.
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?
A particular technique for solving Sudoku puzzles, known as "naked pair", is explained in this easy-to-read article.
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.