Filter by: Content type: ALL Problems Articles Games Stage: All Stage 1&2 Stage 2&3 Stage 3&4 Stage 4&5 Challenge level:
On the planet Vuv there are two sorts of creatures. The Zios have 3 legs and the Zepts have 7 legs. The great planetary explorer Nico counted 52 legs. How many Zios and how many Zepts were there?
The discs for this game are kept in a flat square box with a square hole for each disc. Use the information to find out how many discs of each colour there are in the box.
Ben’s class were making cutting up number tracks. First they cut them into twos and added up the numbers on each piece. What patterns could they see?
There is a clock-face where the numbers have become all mixed up. Can you find out where all the numbers have got to from these ten statements?
There are a number of coins on a table. One quarter of the coins show heads. If I turn over 2 coins, then one third show heads. How many coins are there altogether?
48 is called an abundant number because it is less than the sum of its factors (without itself). Can you find some more abundant numbers?
Can you fill in this table square? The numbers 2 -12 were used to generate it with just one number used twice.
Can you make square numbers by adding two prime numbers together?
An investigation that gives you the opportunity to make and justify predictions.
I throw three dice and get 5, 3 and 2. Add the scores on the three dice. What do you get? Now multiply the scores. What do you notice?
Suppose we allow ourselves to use three numbers less than 10 and multiply them together. How many different products can you find? How do you know you've got them all?
A mathematician goes into a supermarket and buys four items. Using a calculator she multiplies the cost instead of adding them. How can her answer be the same as the total at the till?
How many different shaped boxes can you design for 36 sweets in one layer? Can you arrange the sweets so that no sweets of the same colour are next to each other in any direction?
"Ip dip sky blue! Who's 'it'? It's you!" Where would you position yourself so that you are 'it' if there are two players? Three players ...?
An environment which simulates working with Cuisenaire rods.
Complete the magic square using the numbers 1 to 25 once each. Each row, column and diagonal adds up to 65.
When Charlie asked his grandmother how old she is, he didn't get a straightforward reply! Can you work out how old she is?
56 406 is the product of two consecutive numbers. What are these two numbers?
Nine squares with side lengths 1, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 14, 15, and 18 cm can be fitted together to form a rectangle. What are the dimensions of the rectangle?
What is the lowest number which always leaves a remainder of 1 when divided by each of the numbers from 2 to 10?
Can you work out the arrangement of the digits in the square so that the given products are correct? The numbers 1 - 9 may be used once and once only.
There are ten children in Becky's group. Can you find a set of numbers for each of them? Are there any other sets?
What happens if you join every second point on this circle? How about every third point? Try with different steps and see if you can predict what will happen.
The planet of Vuvv has seven moons. Can you work out how long it is between each super-eclipse?
Are these domino games fair? Can you explain why or why not?
Can you order the digits from 1-6 to make a number which is divisible by 6 so when the last digit is removed it becomes a 5-figure number divisible by 5, and so on?
How many different sets of numbers with at least four members can you find in the numbers in this box?
Investigate the smallest number of moves it takes to turn these mats upside-down if you can only turn exactly three at a time.
Work out Tom's number from the answers he gives his friend. He will only answer 'yes' or 'no'.
Katie and Will have some balloons. Will's balloon burst at exactly the same size as Katie's at the beginning of a puff. How many puffs had Will done before his balloon burst?
Factor track is not a race but a game of skill. The idea is to go round the track in as few moves as possible, keeping to the rules.
Investigate the sum of the numbers on the top and bottom faces of a line of three dice. What do you notice?
Four of these clues are needed to find the chosen number on this grid and four are true but do nothing to help in finding the number. Can you sort out the clues and find the number?
A game for 2 people using a pack of cards Turn over 2 cards and try to make an odd number or a multiple of 3.
Twice a week I go swimming and swim the same number of lengths of the pool each time. As I swim, I count the lengths I've done so far, and make it into a fraction of the whole number of lengths. . . .
This article for teachers describes how number arrays can be a useful reprentation for many number concepts.
Ben passed a third of his counters to Jack, Jack passed a quarter of his counters to Emma and Emma passed a fifth of her counters to Ben. After this they all had the same number of counters.
If you have only four weights, where could you place them in order to balance this equaliser?
In this problem we are looking at sets of parallel sticks that cross each other. What is the least number of crossings you can make? And the greatest?
Which is quicker, counting up to 30 in ones or counting up to 300 in tens? Why?
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...
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?
Starting with the number 180, take away 9 again and again, joining up the dots as you go. Watch out - don't join all the dots!
What do the numbers shaded in blue on this hundred square have in common? What do you notice about the pink numbers? How about the shaded numbers in the other squares?
Arrange the four number cards on the grid, according to the rules, to make a diagonal, vertical or horizontal line.
The sum of the first 'n' natural numbers is a 3 digit number in which all the digits are the same. How many numbers have been summed?
Using the digits 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8, mulitply a two two digit numbers are multiplied to give a four digit number, so that the expression is correct. How many different solutions can you find?
Can you see how these factor-multiple chains work? Find the chain which contains the smallest possible numbers. How about the largest possible numbers?
Can you work out what a ziffle is on the planet Zargon?
This big box multiplies anything that goes inside it by the same number. If you know the numbers that come out, what multiplication might be going on in the box?