Filter by: Content type: ALL Problems Articles Games Stage: All Stage 1&2 Stage 2&3 Stage 3&4 Stage 4&5 Challenge level:
Skippy and Anna are locked in a room in a large castle. The key to that room, and all the other rooms, is a number. The numbers are locked away in a problem. Can you help them to get out?
Bernard Bagnall recommends some primary school problems which use numbers from the environment around us, from clocks to house numbers.
Can you arrange the digits 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 into three 3-digit numbers such that their total is close to 1500?
Complete the following expressions so that each one gives a four digit number as the product of two two digit numbers and uses the digits 1 to 8 once and only once.
This challenge is to make up YOUR OWN alphanumeric. Each letter represents a digit and where the same letter appears more than once it must represent the same digit each time.
Using the digits 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8, mulitply a two two digit numbers are multiplied to give a four digit number, so that the expression is correct. How many different solutions can you find?
A combination mechanism for a safe comprises thirty-two tumblers numbered from one to thirty-two in such a way that the numbers in each wheel total 132... Could you open the safe?
This is a game in which your counters move in a spiral round the snail's shell. It is about understanding tens and units.
Can you work out how many of each kind of pencil this student bought?
The number 10112359550561797752808988764044943820224719 is called a 'slippy number' because, when the last digit 9 is moved to the front, the new number produced is the slippy number multiplied by 9.
Investigate $1^n + 19^n + 20^n + 51^n + 57^n + 80^n + 82^n $ and $2^n + 12^n + 31^n + 40^n + 69^n + 71^n + 85^n$ for different values of n.
Find the number which has 8 divisors, such that the product of the divisors is 331776.
Guess the Dominoes for child and adult.
Helen made the conjecture that "every multiple of six has more factors than the two numbers either side of it". Is this conjecture true?
The number 12 = 2^2 × 3 has 6 factors. What is the smallest natural number with exactly 36 factors?
This package contains a collection of problems from the NRICH website that could be suitable for students who have a good understanding of Factors and Multiples and who feel ready to take on some. . . .
I am thinking of three sets of numbers less than 101. They are the red set, the green set and the blue set. Can you find all the numbers in the sets from these clues?
I am thinking of three sets of numbers less than 101. Can you find all the numbers in each set from these clues?
Can you each work out the number on your card? What do you notice? How could you sort the cards?
Suppose you had to begin the never ending task of writing out the natural numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.... and so on. What would be the 1000th digit you would write down.
A case is found with a combination lock. There is one clue about the number needed to open the case. Can you find the number and open the case?
If you take a three by three square on a 1-10 addition square and multiply the diagonally opposite numbers together, what is the difference between these products. Why?
Find out about palindromic numbers by reading this article.
A cinema has 100 seats. Show how it is possible to sell exactly 100 tickets and take exactly £100 if the prices are £10 for adults, 50p for pensioners and 10p for children.
Whenever two chameleons of different colours meet they change colour to the third colour. Describe the shortest sequence of meetings in which all the chameleons change to green if you start with 12. . . .
This investigation is about happy numbers in the World of the Octopus where all numbers are written in base 8 ... Find all the fixed points and cycles for the happy number sequences in base 8.
Can you find any perfect numbers? Read this article to find out more...
What would you do if your teacher asked you add all the numbers from 1 to 100? Find out how Carl Gauss responded when he was asked to do just that.
When the number x 1 x x x is multiplied by 417 this gives the answer 9 x x x 0 5 7. Find the missing digits, each of which is represented by an "x" .
Look at three 'next door neighbours' amongst the counting numbers. Add them together. What do you notice?
There are some water lilies in a lake. The area that they cover doubles in size every day. After 17 days the whole lake is covered. How long did it take them to cover half the lake?
This article gives you a few ideas for understanding the Got It! game and how you might find a winning strategy.
Can you find ways of joining cubes together so that 28 faces are visible?
Imagine a machine with four coloured lights which respond to different rules. Can you find the smallest possible number which will make all four colours light up?
Nearly all of us have made table patterns on hundred squares, that is 10 by 10 grids. This problem looks at the patterns on differently sized square grids.
This task depends on learners sharing reasoning, listening to opinions, reflecting and pulling ideas together.
Explain why the arithmetic sequence 1, 14, 27, 40, ... contains many terms of the form 222...2 where only the digit 2 appears.
What is the smallest number with exactly 14 divisors?
This article explains how credit card numbers are defined and the check digit serves to verify their accuracy.
Visitors to Earth from the distant planet of Zub-Zorna were amazed when they found out that when the digits in this multiplication were reversed, the answer was the same! Find a way to explain. . . .
When asked how old she was, the teacher replied: My age in years is not prime but odd and when reversed and added to my age you have a perfect square...
The number 2.525252525252.... can be written as a fraction. What is the sum of the denominator and numerator?
How many positive integers less than or equal to 4000 can be written down without using the digits 7, 8 or 9?
My two digit number is special because adding the sum of its digits to the product of its digits gives me my original number. What could my number be?
Find some triples of whole numbers a, b and c such that a^2 + b^2 + c^2 is a multiple of 4. Is it necessarily the case that a, b and c must all be even? If so, can you explain why?
How many six digit numbers are there which DO NOT contain a 5?
What are the last two digits of 2^(2^2003)?
In how many ways can a pound (value 100 pence) be changed into some combination of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 50 pence coins?
Show that 8778, 10296 and 13530 are three triangular numbers and that they form a Pythagorean triple.
What is the last digit of the number 1 / 5^903 ?