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The diagonals of a trapezium divide it into four parts. Can you create a trapezium where three of those parts are equal in area?
If I print this page which shape will require the more yellow ink?
Three rods of different lengths form three sides of an enclosure with right angles between them. What arrangement maximises the area
Manufacturers need to minimise the amount of material used to make their product. What is the best cross-section for a gutter?
A farmer has a field which is the shape of a trapezium as illustrated below. To increase his profits he wishes to grow two different crops. To do this he would like to divide the field into two. . . .
Investigate the properties of quadrilaterals which can be drawn with a circle just touching each side and another circle just touching each vertex.
A trapezium is divided into four triangles by its diagonals. Suppose the two triangles containing the parallel sides have areas a and b, what is the area of the trapezium?
Have a go at creating these images based on circles. What do you notice about the areas of the different sections?
If the base of a rectangle is increased by 10% and the area is unchanged, by what percentage (exactly) is the width decreased by ?
Prove that a triangle with sides of length 5, 5 and 6 has the same area as a triangle with sides of length 5, 5 and 8. Find other pairs of non-congruent isosceles triangles which have equal areas.
Triangle ABC is right angled at A and semi circles are drawn on all three sides producing two 'crescents'. Show that the sum of the areas of the two crescents equals the area of triangle ABC.
Can you find a general rule for finding the areas of equilateral triangles drawn on an isometric grid?
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.
A point P is selected anywhere inside an equilateral triangle. What can you say about the sum of the perpendicular distances from P to the sides of the triangle? Can you prove your conjecture?
Can you find the area of a parallelogram defined by two vectors?
What is the same and what is different about these circle questions? What connections can you make?
What happens to the area and volume of 2D and 3D shapes when you enlarge them?
Can you choose your units so that a cube has the same numerical value for it volume, surface area and total edge length?
If you have only 40 metres of fencing available, what is the maximum area of land you can fence off?
It's easy to work out the areas of most squares that we meet, but what if they were tilted?
What are the areas of these triangles? What do you notice? Can you generalise to other "families" of triangles?
A circle is inscribed in a triangle which has side lengths of 8, 15 and 17 cm. What is the radius of the circle?
Can you maximise the area available to a grazing goat?
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?
Four quadrants are drawn centred at the vertices of a square . Find the area of the central region bounded by the four arcs.
Straight lines are drawn from each corner of a square to the mid points of the opposite sides. Express the area of the octagon that is formed at the centre as a fraction of the area of the square.
Prove that the area of a quadrilateral is given by half the product of the lengths of the diagonals multiplied by the sine of the angle between the diagonals.
Take any rectangle ABCD such that AB > BC. The point P is on AB and Q is on CD. Show that there is exactly one position of P and Q such that APCQ is a rhombus.
Follow the instructions and you can take a rectangle, cut it into 4 pieces, discard two small triangles, put together the remaining two pieces and end up with a rectangle the same size. Try it!
Six circular discs are packed in different-shaped boxes so that the discs touch their neighbours and the sides of the box. Can you put the boxes in order according to the areas of their bases?
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?
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.
A square of area 40 square cms is inscribed in a semicircle. Find the area of the square that could be inscribed in a circle of the same radius.
Can you work out the area of the inner square and give an explanation of how you did it?
Investigate the different ways of cutting a perfectly circular pie into equal pieces using exactly 3 cuts. The cuts have to be along chords of the circle (which might be diameters).
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.
How have "Warmsnug" arrived at the prices shown on their windows? Which window has been given an incorrect price?
ABC and DEF are equilateral triangles of side 3 and 4 respectively. Construct an equilateral triangle whose area is the sum of the area of ABC and DEF.
An activity for high-attaining learners which involves making a new cylinder from a cardboard tube.
Explore one of these five pictures.
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?
Bluey-green, white and transparent squares with a few odd bits of shapes around the perimeter. But, how many squares are there of each type in the complete circle? Study the picture and make. . . .
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?
Determine the total shaded area of the 'kissing triangles'.
Derive a formula for finding the area of any kite.
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?
What is the area of the quadrilateral APOQ? Working on the building blocks will give you some insights that may help you to work it out.
A task which depends on members of the group noticing the needs of others and responding.
This shape comprises four semi-circles. What is the relationship between the area of the shaded region and the area of the circle on AB as diameter?