Filter by: Content type: ALL Problems Articles Games Stage: All Stage 1&2 Stage 2&3 Stage 3&4 Stage 4&5 Challenge level:
Imagine we have four bags containing numbers from a sequence. What numbers can we make now?
Look at three 'next door neighbours' amongst the counting numbers. Add them together. What do you notice?
In this activity, the computer chooses a times table and shifts it. Can you work out the table and the shift each time?
Imagine we have four bags containing a large number of 1s, 4s, 7s and 10s. What numbers can we make?
Can you find a way to identify times tables after they have been shifted up?
Here is a machine with four coloured lights. Can you develop a strategy to work out the rules controlling each light?
A game for two people, or play online. Given a target number, say 23, and a range of numbers to choose from, say 1-4, players take it in turns to add to the running total to hit their target.
Find some triples of whole numbers a, b and c such that a^2 + b^2 + c^2 is a multiple of 4. Is it necessarily the case that a, b and c must all be even? If so, can you explain why?
List any 3 numbers. It is always possible to find a subset of adjacent numbers that add up to a multiple of 3. Can you explain why and prove it?
Make a set of numbers that use all the digits from 1 to 9, once and once only. Add them up. The result is divisible by 9. Add each of the digits in the new number. What is their sum? Now try some. . . .
Explain why the arithmetic sequence 1, 14, 27, 40, ... contains many terms of the form 222...2 where only the digit 2 appears.
Investigate the sum of the numbers on the top and bottom faces of a line of three dice. What do you notice?
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?
The number 8888...88M9999...99 is divisible by 7 and it starts with the digit 8 repeated 50 times and ends with the digit 9 repeated 50 times. What is the value of the digit M?
Given the products of diagonally opposite cells - can you complete this Sudoku?
What is the remainder when 2^2002 is divided by 7? What happens with different powers of 2?
Caroline and James pick sets of five numbers. Charlie chooses three of them that add together to make a multiple of three. Can they stop him?
A collection of resources to support work on Factors and Multiples at Secondary level.
Find some examples of pairs of numbers such that their sum is a factor of their product. eg. 4 + 12 = 16 and 4 × 12 = 48 and 16 is a factor of 48.
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?
I'm thinking of a number. When my number is divided by 5 the remainder is 4. When my number is divided by 3 the remainder is 2. Can you find my number?
Take any two digit number, for example 58. What do you have to do to reverse the order of the digits? Can you find a rule for reversing the order of digits for any two digit number?
Choose any 3 digits and make a 6 digit number by repeating the 3 digits in the same order (e.g. 594594). Explain why whatever digits you choose the number will always be divisible by 7, 11 and 13.
Three people chose this as a favourite problem. It is the sort of problem that needs thinking time - but once the connection is made it gives access to many similar ideas.
A three digit number abc is always divisible by 7 when 2a+3b+c is divisible by 7. Why?
You are given the Lowest Common Multiples of sets of digits. Find the digits and then solve the Sudoku.
For this challenge, you'll need to play Got It! Can you explain the strategy for winning this game with any target?
Which pairs of cogs let the coloured tooth touch every tooth on the other cog? Which pairs do not let this happen? Why?
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?
How many integers between 1 and 1200 are NOT multiples of any of the numbers 2, 3 or 5?
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.
Rectangles are considered different if they vary in size or have different locations. How many different rectangles can be drawn on a chessboard?
What is the smallest number with exactly 14 divisors?
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?
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...
The five digit number A679B, in base ten, is divisible by 72. What are the values of A and B?
This article takes the reader through divisibility tests and how they work. An article to read with pencil and paper to hand.
A game that tests your understanding of remainders.
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 work out what size grid you need to read our secret message?
I put eggs into a basket in groups of 7 and noticed that I could easily have divided them into piles of 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 and always have one left over. How many eggs were in the basket?
A number N is divisible by 10, 90, 98 and 882 but it is NOT divisible by 50 or 270 or 686 or 1764. It is also known that N is a factor of 9261000. What is N?
Some 4 digit numbers can be written as the product of a 3 digit number and a 2 digit number using the digits 1 to 9 each once and only once. The number 4396 can be written as just such a product. Can. . . .
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?
What is the value of the digit A in the sum below: [3(230 + A)]^2 = 49280A
Can you find what the last two digits of the number $4^{1999}$ are?
An investigation that gives you the opportunity to make and justify predictions.
Helen made the conjecture that "every multiple of six has more factors than the two numbers either side of it". Is this conjecture true?
Find the number which has 8 divisors, such that the product of the divisors is 331776.
Do you know a quick way to check if a number is a multiple of two? How about three, four or six?