Filter by: Content type: ALL Problems Articles Games Stage: All Stage 1&2 Stage 2&3 Stage 3&4 Stage 4&5 Challenge level:
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.
Can you find a way to identify times tables after they have been shifted up?
A collection of resources to support work on Factors and Multiples at Secondary level.
Given the products of diagonally opposite cells - can you complete this Sudoku?
What can you say about the values of n that make $7^n + 3^n$ a multiple of 10? Are there other pairs of integers between 1 and 10 which have similar properties?
You are given the Lowest Common Multiples of sets of digits. Find the digits and then solve the Sudoku.
A game that tests your understanding of remainders.
In this activity, the computer chooses a times table and shifts it. Can you work out the table and the shift each time?
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?
Here is a Sudoku with a difference! Use information about lowest common multiples to help you solve it.
The clues for this Sudoku are the product of the numbers in adjacent squares.
Can you find a relationship between the number of dots on the circle and the number of steps that will ensure that all points are hit?
A three digit number abc is always divisible by 7 when 2a+3b+c is divisible by 7. Why?
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?
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.
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?
For this challenge, you'll need to play Got It! Can you explain the strategy for winning this game with any target?
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.
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 game in which players take it in turns to choose a number. Can you block your opponent?
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.
Imagine we have four bags containing a large number of 1s, 4s, 7s and 10s. What numbers can we make?
Consider numbers of the form un = 1! + 2! + 3! +...+n!. How many such numbers are perfect squares?
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.
How many zeros are there at the end of the number which is the product of first hundred positive integers?
The nth term of a sequence is given by the formula n^3 + 11n . Find the first four terms of the sequence given by this formula and the first term of the sequence which is bigger than one million. . . .
Find the frequency distribution for ordinary English, and use it to help you crack the code.
Given any 3 digit number you can use the given digits and name another number which is divisible by 37 (e.g. given 628 you say 628371 is divisible by 37 because you know that 6+3 = 2+7 = 8+1 = 9). . . .
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. . . .
Rectangles are considered different if they vary in size or have different locations. How many different rectangles can be drawn on a chessboard?
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 number 12 = 2^2 × 3 has 6 factors. What is the smallest natural number with exactly 36 factors?
Each letter represents a different positive digit AHHAAH / JOKE = HA What are the values of each of the letters?
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?
Given the products of adjacent cells, can you complete this Sudoku?
Explain why the arithmetic sequence 1, 14, 27, 40, ... contains many terms of the form 222...2 where only the digit 2 appears.
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?
Substitution and Transposition all in one! How fiendish can these codes get?
Data is sent in chunks of two different sizes - a yellow chunk has 5 characters and a blue chunk has 9 characters. A data slot of size 31 cannot be exactly filled with a combination of yellow and. . . .
Explore the factors of the numbers which are written as 10101 in different number bases. Prove that the numbers 10201, 11011 and 10101 are composite in any base.
Can you work out what size grid you need to read our secret message?
What is the largest number which, when divided into 1905, 2587, 3951, 7020 and 8725 in turn, leaves the same remainder each time?
In how many ways can the number 1 000 000 be expressed as the product of three positive integers?
Make a line of green and a line of yellow rods so that the lines differ in length by one (a white rod)
This article takes the reader through divisibility tests and how they work. An article to read with pencil and paper to hand.
A student in a maths class was trying to get some information from her teacher. She was given some clues and then the teacher ended by saying, "Well, how old are they?"
What is the remainder when 2^2002 is divided by 7? What happens with different powers of 2?
This package contains a collection of problems from the NRICH website that could be suitable for students who have a good understanding of Factors and Multiples and who feel ready to take on some. . . .
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. . . .