Filter by: Content type: ALL Problems Articles Games Stage: All Stage 1&2 Stage 2&3 Stage 3&4 Stage 4&5 Challenge level:
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?
Using some or all of the operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division and using the digits 3, 3, 8 and 8 each once and only once make an expression equal to 24.
Grandma found her pie balanced on the scale with two weights and a quarter of a pie. So how heavy was each pie?
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?
After training hard, these two children have improved their results. Can you work out the length or height of their first jumps?
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?
Here is a picnic that Chris and Michael are going to share equally. Can you tell us what each of them will have?
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.
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. . . .
Imagine you were given the chance to win some money... and imagine you had nothing to lose...
This list offers an introduction to fractions that will help children to develop an understanding of fractions and approaches to solving problems using them.
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.
On Saturday, Asha and Kishan's grandad took them to a Theme Park. Use the information to work out how long were they in the theme park.
The resources in this trail aim to enrich the experiences of children who are just being introduced to fractions.
Whenever a monkey has peaches, he always keeps a fraction of them each day, gives the rest away, and then eats one. How long could he make his peaches last for?
Investigate this balance which is marked in halves. If you had a weight on the left-hand 7, where could you hang two weights on the right to make it balance?
Andy had a big bag of marbles but unfortunately the bottom of it split and all the marbles spilled out. Use the information to find out how many there were in the bag originally.
Can you predict, without drawing, what the perimeter of the next shape in this pattern will be if we continue drawing them in the same way?
Find out why these matrices are magic. Can you work out how they were made? Can you make your own Magic Matrix?
Use the fraction wall to compare the size of these fractions - you'll be amazed how it helps!
My friends and I love pizza. Can you help us share these pizzas equally?
On my calculator I divided one whole number by another whole number and got the answer 3.125 If the numbers are both under 50, what are they?
Can you work out the height of Baby Bear's chair and whose bed is whose if all the things the three bears have are in the same proportions?
A 750 ml bottle of concentrated orange squash is enough to make fifteen 250 ml glasses of diluted orange drink. How much water is needed to make 10 litres of this drink?
This challenge asks you to imagine a snake coiling on itself.
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.
Two brothers were left some money, amounting to an exact number of pounds, to divide between them. DEE undertook the division. "But your heap is larger than mine!" cried DUM...
Problem one was solved by 70% of the pupils. Problem 2 was solved by 60% of them. Every pupil solved at least one of the problems. Nine pupils solved both problems. How many pupils took the exam?
Anne completes a circuit around a circular track in 40 seconds. Brenda runs in the opposite direction and meets Anne every 15 seconds. How long does it take Brenda to run around the track?
In this problem, we have created a pattern from smaller and smaller squares. If we carried on the pattern forever, what proportion of the image would be coloured blue?
The Egyptians expressed all fractions as the sum of different unit fractions. The Greedy Algorithm might provide us with an efficient way of doing this.
Consider the equation 1/a + 1/b + 1/c = 1 where a, b and c are natural numbers and 0 < a < b < c. Prove that there is only one set of values which satisfy this equation.
A jigsaw where pieces only go together if the fractions are equivalent.
Can you tangle yourself up and reach any fraction?
It would be nice to have a strategy for disentangling any tangled ropes...
Sometime during every hour the minute hand lies directly above the hour hand. At what time between 4 and 5 o'clock does this happen?
What would you get if you continued this sequence of fraction sums? 1/2 + 2/1 = 2/3 + 3/2 = 3/4 + 4/3 =
Take a look at the video and try to find a sequence of moves that will take you back to zero.
Can you work out which drink has the stronger flavour?
My recipe is for 12 cakes - how do I change it if I want to make a different number of cakes?
The sum of the numbers 4 and 1 [1/3] is the same as the product of 4 and 1 [1/3]; that is to say 4 + 1 [1/3] = 4 × 1 [1/3]. What other numbers have the sum equal to the product and can this be so for. . . .
Look carefully at the video of a tangle and explain what's happening.
The Egyptians expressed all fractions as the sum of different unit fractions. Here is a chance to explore how they could have written different fractions.
Can you see how to build a harmonic triangle? Can you work out the next two rows?
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?
Can all unit fractions be written as the sum of two unit fractions?
Here is a chance to play a fractions version of the classic Countdown Game.