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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.
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?
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. . . .
Can you each work out the number on your card? What do you notice? How could you sort the cards?
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?
I am thinking of three sets of numbers less than 101. Can you find all the numbers in each set from these clues?
This is a game in which your counters move in a spiral round the snail's shell. It is about understanding tens and units.
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?
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?
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?
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. . . .
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?
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.
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?
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?
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 article gives you a few ideas for understanding the Got It! game and how you might find a winning strategy.
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.
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.
What is the smallest number with exactly 14 divisors?
Can you find any perfect numbers? Read this article to find out more...
Look at three 'next door neighbours' amongst the counting numbers. Add them together. What do you notice?
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" .
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.
Guess the Dominoes for child and adult.
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?
Find out about palindromic numbers by reading this article.
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.
How many pairs of numbers can you find that add up to a multiple of 11? Do you notice anything interesting about your results?
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.
The number 12 = 2^2 × 3 has 6 factors. What is the smallest natural number with exactly 36 factors?
The number 2.525252525252.... can be written as a fraction. What is the sum of the denominator and numerator?
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. . . .
Explain why the arithmetic sequence 1, 14, 27, 40, ... contains many terms of the form 222...2 where only the digit 2 appears.
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.
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?
What are the last two digits of 2^(2^2003)?
Helen made the conjecture that "every multiple of six has more factors than the two numbers either side of it". Is this conjecture true?
Can you work out how many of each kind of pencil this student bought?
What is the last digit of the number 1 / 5^903 ?
Can you find ways of joining cubes together so that 28 faces are visible?
Find the number which has 8 divisors, such that the product of the divisors is 331776.
How many positive integers less than or equal to 4000 can be written down without using the digits 7, 8 or 9?
This task depends on learners sharing reasoning, listening to opinions, reflecting and pulling ideas together.
Many numbers can be expressed as the sum of two or more consecutive integers. For example, 15=7+8 and 10=1+2+3+4. Can you say which numbers can be expressed in this way?
Work out how to light up the single light. What's the rule?
Charlie has made a Magic V. Can you use his example to make some more? And how about Magic Ls, Ns and Ws?
A and B are two interlocking cogwheels having p teeth and q teeth respectively. One tooth on B is painted red. Find the values of p and q for which the red tooth on B contacts every gap on the. . . .