Filter by: Content type: ALL Problems Articles Games Stage: All Stage 1&2 Stage 2&3 Stage 3&4 Stage 4&5 Challenge level:
An investigation that gives you the opportunity to make and justify predictions.
If you have only 40 metres of fencing available, what is the maximum area of land you can fence off?
At the corner of the cube circular arcs are drawn and the area enclosed shaded. What fraction of the surface area of the cube is shaded? Try working out the answer without recourse to pencil and. . . .
Can you help the children find the two triangles which have the lengths of two sides numerically equal to their areas?
Can you maximise the area available to a grazing goat?
The area of a square inscribed in a circle with a unit radius is, satisfyingly, 2. What is the area of a regular hexagon inscribed in a circle with a unit radius?
How many ways can you find of tiling the square patio, using square tiles of different sizes?
What can you say about these shapes? This problem challenges you to create shapes with different areas and perimeters.
In the four examples below identical squares of side one unit contain some circles shaded blue. In which of the four examples is the shaded area greatest?
Place four pebbles on the sand in the form of a square. Keep adding as few pebbles as necessary to double the area. How many extra pebbles are added each time?
Explore one of these five pictures.
These rectangles have been torn. How many squares did each one have inside it before it was ripped?
What is the smallest number of tiles needed to tile this patio? Can you investigate patios of different sizes?
What fractions of the largest circle are the two shaded regions?
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?
A hallway floor is tiled and each tile is one foot square. Given that the number of tiles around the perimeter is EXACTLY half the total number of tiles, find the possible dimensions of the hallway.
A tower of squares is built inside a right angled isosceles triangle. The largest square stands on the hypotenuse. What fraction of the area of the triangle is covered by the series of squares?
Here are many ideas for you to investigate - all linked with the number 2000.
Can you draw a square in which the perimeter is numerically equal to the area?
How many centimetres of rope will I need to make another mat just like the one I have here?
What shape has Harry drawn on this clock face? Can you find its area? What is the largest number of square tiles that could cover this area?
How many tiles do we need to tile these patios?
A follow-up activity to Tiles in the Garden.
I'm thinking of a rectangle with an area of 24. What could its perimeter be?
How can you change the area of a shape but keep its perimeter the same? How can you change the perimeter but keep the area the same?
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?
Polygons drawn on square dotty paper have dots on their perimeter (p) and often internal (i) ones as well. Find a relationship between p, i and the area of the polygons.
Can you find the area of a parallelogram defined by two vectors?
It's easy to work out the areas of most squares that we meet, but what if they were tilted?
Points P, Q, R and S each divide the sides AB, BC, CD and DA respectively in the ratio of 2 : 1. Join the points. What is the area of the parallelogram PQRS in relation to the original rectangle?
If I use 12 green tiles to represent my lawn, how many different ways could I arrange them? How many border tiles would I need each time?
Can you work out the area of the inner square and give an explanation of how you did it?
Which is a better fit, a square peg in a round hole or a round peg in a square hole?
Semicircles are drawn on the sides of a rectangle ABCD. A circle passing through points ABCD carves out four crescent-shaped regions. Prove that the sum of the areas of the four crescents is equal to. . . .
What are the areas of these triangles? What do you notice? Can you generalise to other "families" of triangles?
How have "Warmsnug" arrived at the prices shown on their windows? Which window has been given an incorrect price?
Choose a box and work out the smallest rectangle of paper needed to wrap it so that it is completely covered.
Investigate all the different squares you can make on this 5 by 5 grid by making your starting side go from the bottom left hand point. Can you find out the areas of all these squares?
A thoughtful shepherd used bales of straw to protect the area around his lambs. Explore how you can arrange the bales.
Investigate the area of 'slices' cut off this cube of cheese. What would happen if you had different-sized block of cheese to start with?
Cut differently-sized square corners from a square piece of paper to make boxes without lids. Do they all have the same volume?
This practical challenge invites you to investigate the different squares you can make on a square geoboard or pegboard.
It is possible to dissect any square into smaller squares. What is the minimum number of squares a 13 by 13 square can be dissected into?
Can you find rectangles where the value of the area is the same as the value of the perimeter?
This rectangle is cut into five pieces which fit exactly into a triangular outline and also into a square outline where the triangle, the rectangle and the square have equal areas.
What is the shape and dimensions of a box that will contain six cups and have as small a surface area as possible.
Seven small rectangular pictures have one inch wide frames. The frames are removed and the pictures are fitted together like a jigsaw to make a rectangle of length 12 inches. Find the dimensions of. . . .
A red square and a blue square overlap so that the corner of the red square rests on the centre of the blue square. Show that, whatever the orientation of the red square, it covers a quarter of the. . . .
I cut this square into two different shapes. What can you say about the relationship between them?
A task which depends on members of the group noticing the needs of others and responding.