Filter by: Content type: ALL Problems Articles Games Stage: All Stage 1&2 Stage 2&3 Stage 3&4 Stage 4&5 Challenge level:
If you have only four weights, where could you place them in order to balance this equaliser?
Starting with the number 180, take away 9 again and again, joining up the dots as you go. Watch out - don't join all the dots!
Use the information about Sally and her brother to find out how many children there are in the Brown family.
Exactly 195 digits have been used to number the pages in a book. How many pages does the book have?
If you hang two weights on one side of this balance, in how many different ways can you hang three weights on the other side for it to be balanced?
Can you use the numbers on the dice to reach your end of the number line before your partner beats you?
There are 4 jugs which hold 9 litres, 7 litres, 4 litres and 2 litres. Find a way to pour 9 litres of drink from one jug to another until you are left with exactly 3 litres in three of the jugs.
Can you hang weights in the right place to make the equaliser balance?
A game for 2 or more players with a pack of cards. Practise your skills of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division to hit the target score.
Ten cards are put into five envelopes so that there are two cards in each envelope. The sum of the numbers inside it is written on each envelope. What numbers could be inside the envelopes?
How could you put eight beanbags in the hoops so that there are four in the blue hoop, five in the red and six in the yellow? Can you find all the ways of doing this?
In how many ways could Mrs Beeswax put ten coins into her three puddings so that each pudding ended up with at least two coins?
You have 5 darts and your target score is 44. How many different ways could you score 44?
Lolla bought a balloon at the circus. She gave the clown six coins to pay for it. What could Lolla have paid for the balloon?
Use the number weights to find different ways of balancing the equaliser.
The value of the circle changes in each of the following problems. Can you discover its value in each problem?
This problem is based on a code using two different prime numbers less than 10. You'll need to multiply them together and shift the alphabet forwards by the result. Can you decipher the code?
Can you make a cycle of pairs that add to make a square number using all the numbers in the box below, once and once only?
Can you find which shapes you need to put into the grid to make the totals at the end of each row and the bottom of each column?
Peter, Melanie, Amil and Jack received a total of 38 chocolate eggs. Use the information to work out how many eggs each person had.
Place the numbers 1 to 10 in the circles so that each number is the difference between the two numbers just below it.
Sweets are given out to party-goers in a particular way. Investigate the total number of sweets received by people sitting in different positions.
There are 44 people coming to a dinner party. There are 15 square tables that seat 4 people. Find a way to seat the 44 people using all 15 tables, with no empty places.
There are three buckets each of which holds a maximum of 5 litres. Use the clues to work out how much liquid there is in each bucket.
Add the sum of the squares of four numbers between 10 and 20 to the sum of the squares of three numbers less than 6 to make the square of another, larger, number.
Can you put plus signs in so this is true? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 = 99 How many ways can you do it?
This magic square has operations written in it, to make it into a maze. Start wherever you like, go through every cell and go out a total of 15!
In this game, you can add, subtract, multiply or divide the numbers on the dice. Which will you do so that you get to the end of the number line first?
Winifred Wytsh bought a box each of jelly babies, milk jelly bears, yellow jelly bees and jelly belly beans. In how many different ways could she make a jolly jelly feast with 32 legs?
There were chews for 2p, mini eggs for 3p, Chocko bars for 5p and lollypops for 7p in the sweet shop. What could each of the children buy with their money?
Using the statements, can you work out how many of each type of rabbit there are in these pens?
A group of children are using measuring cylinders but they lose the labels. Can you help relabel them?
Can you see why 2 by 2 could be 5? Can you predict what 2 by 10 will be?
Place the numbers from 1 to 9 in the squares below so that the difference between joined squares is odd. How many different ways can you do this?
How have the numbers been placed in this Carroll diagram? Which labels would you put on each row and column?
Use the interactivities to fill in these Carroll diagrams. How do you know where to place the numbers?
What do you notice about the date 03.06.09? Or 08.01.09? This challenge invites you to investigate some interesting dates yourself.
What do the digits in the number fifteen add up to? How many other numbers have digits with the same total but no zeros?
Place the numbers 1 to 6 in the circles so that each number is the difference between the two numbers just below it.
There are nasty versions of this dice game but we'll start with the nice ones...
Start by putting one million (1 000 000) into the display of your calculator. Can you reduce this to 7 using just the 7 key and add, subtract, multiply, divide and equals as many times as you like?
Tim had nine cards each with a different number from 1 to 9 on it. How could he have put them into three piles so that the total in each pile was 15?
Look carefully at the numbers. What do you notice? Can you make another square using the numbers 1 to 16, that displays the same properties?
There are 78 prisoners in a square cell block of twelve cells. The clever prison warder arranged them so there were 25 along each wall of the prison block. How did he do it?
Use your logical-thinking skills to deduce how much Dan's crisps and ice-cream cost altogether.
This problem is based on the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Investigate the different numbers of people and rats there could have been if you know how many legs there are altogether!
A game for 2 people using a pack of cards Turn over 2 cards and try to make an odd number or a multiple of 3.
A game for 2 people. Use your skills of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division to blast the asteroids.
Arrange eight of the numbers between 1 and 9 in the Polo Square below so that each side adds to the same total.
Zumf makes spectacles for the residents of the planet Zargon, who have either 3 eyes or 4 eyes. How many lenses will Zumf need to make all the different orders for 9 families?