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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!
Exactly 195 digits have been used to number the pages in a book. How many pages does the book have?
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?
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?
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?
Using the statements, can you work out how many of each type of rabbit there are in these pens?
You have two egg timers. One takes 4 minutes exactly to empty and the other takes 7 minutes. What times in whole minutes can you measure and how?
A group of children are using measuring cylinders but they lose the labels. Can you help relabel them?
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?
Arrange eight of the numbers between 1 and 9 in the Polo Square below so that each side adds to the same total.
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 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.
Katie had a pack of 20 cards numbered from 1 to 20. She arranged the cards into 6 unequal piles where each pile added to the same total. What was the total and how could this be done?
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?
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.
On the planet Vuv there are two sorts of creatures. The Zios have 3 legs and the Zepts have 7 legs. The great planetary explorer Nico counted 52 legs. How many Zios and how many Zepts were there?
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?
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.
You have 5 darts and your target score is 44. How many different ways could you score 44?
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!
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?
There is a clock-face where the numbers have become all mixed up. Can you find out where all the numbers have got to from these ten statements?
What do you notice about the date 03.06.09? Or 08.01.09? This challenge invites you to investigate some interesting dates yourself.
I throw three dice and get 5, 3 and 2. Add the scores on the three dice. What do you get? Now multiply the scores. What do you notice?
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?
Cherri, Saxon, Mel and Paul are friends. They are all different ages. Can you find out the age of each friend using the information?
Can you arrange 5 different digits (from 0 - 9) in the cross in the way described?
What do the digits in the number fifteen add up to? How many other numbers have digits with the same total but no zeros?
Suppose there is a train with 24 carriages which are going to be put together to make up some new trains. Can you find all the ways that this can be done?
Find another number that is one short of a square number and when you double it and add 1, the result is also a square number.
On a calculator, make 15 by using only the 2 key and any of the four operations keys. How many ways can you find to do it?
Can you make square numbers by adding two prime numbers together?
Put a number at the top of the machine and collect a number at the bottom. What do you get? Which numbers get back to themselves?
Put operations signs between the numbers 3 4 5 6 to make the highest possible number and lowest possible number.
Sweets are given out to party-goers in a particular way. Investigate the total number of sweets received by people sitting in different positions.
Place the numbers 1 to 10 in the circles so that each number is the difference between the two numbers just below it.
Where can you draw a line on a clock face so that the numbers on both sides have the same total?
Three children are going to buy some plants for their birthdays. They will plant them within circular paths. How could they do this?
If you had any number of ordinary dice, what are the possible ways of making their totals 6? What would the product of the dice be each time?
Fill in the numbers to make the sum of each row, column and diagonal equal to 34. For an extra challenge try the huge American Flag magic square.
This number has 903 digits. What is the sum of all 903 digits?
Peter, Melanie, Amil and Jack received a total of 38 chocolate eggs. Use the information to work out how many eggs each person had.
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.
In a Magic Square all the rows, columns and diagonals add to the 'Magic Constant'. How would you change the magic constant of this square?
Ben has five coins in his pocket. How much money might he have?
Use 4 four times with simple operations so that you get the answer 12. Can you make 15, 16 and 17 too?
Tom and Ben visited Numberland. Use the maps to work out the number of points each of their routes scores.