Resources tagged with Mathematical reasoning & proof similar to Magic Squares:
Other tags that relate to Magic Squares
Number theory. Generalising. Mathematical modelling. Addition & subtraction. Mathematical reasoning & proof. Making and proving conjectures. Dynamical systems. Limits. Manipulating algebraic expressions/formulae. Patterned numbers.There are 167 results
Janine's Conjecture
Stage: 4 Challenge Level: 
Janine noticed, while studying some cube numbers, that if you take three consecutive whole numbers and multiply them together and then add the middle number of the three, you get the middle number. . . .
Truth Tables and Electronic Circuits
Stage: 2, 3 and 4
Investigate circuits and record your findings in this simple introduction to truth tables and logic.
Postage
Stage: 4 Challenge Level:
The country Sixtania prints postage stamps with only three values 6 lucres, 10 lucres and 15 lucres (where the currency is in lucres).Which values cannot be made up with combinations of these postage. . . .
Logic, Truth Tables and Switching Circuits Challenge
Stage: 2, 3, 4 and 5
Learn about the link between logical arguments and electronic circuits. Investigate the logical connectives by making and testing your own circuits and fill in the blanks in truth tables to. . . .
Whole Number Dynamics II
Stage: 3, 4 and 5
This article extends the discussions in "Whole number dynamics I". Continuing the proof that, for all starting points, the Happy Number sequence goes into a loop or homes in on a fixed point.
Three Frogs
Stage: 4 Challenge Level:
Three frogs hopped onto the table. A red frog on the left a green in the middle and a blue frog on the right. Then frogs started jumping randomly over any adjacent frog. Is it possible for them to. . . .
AMGM
Stage: 4 Challenge Level:
Choose any two numbers. Call them a and b. Work out the arithmetic mean and the geometric mean. Which is bigger? Repeat for other pairs of numbers. What do you notice?
Whole Number Dynamics I
Stage: 3, 4 and 5
The first of five articles concentrating on whole number dynamics, ideas of general dynamical systems are introduced and seen in concrete cases.
Sprouts
Stage: 2, 3, 4 and 5
This article invites you to get familiar with a strategic game called "sprouts". The game is simple enough for younger children to understand, and has also provided experienced mathematicians. . . .
Rotating Triangle
Stage: 3 and 4 Challenge Level:
What happens to the perimeter of triangle ABC as the two smaller circles change size and roll around inside the bigger circle?
Cyclic Quad Jigsaw
Stage: 4 Challenge Level:
A picture is made by joining five small quadrilaterals together to make a large quadrilateral. Is it possible to draw a similar picture if all the small quadrilaterals are cyclic?
Unit Interval
Stage: 4 and 5 Challenge Level:
Take any two numbers between 0 and 1. Prove that the sum of the numbers is always less than one plus their product?
Pareq Exists
Stage: 4 Challenge Level:
Prove that, given any three parallel lines, an equilateral triangle always exists with one vertex on each of the three lines.
Impossible Sandwiches
Stage: 3, 4 and 5
In this 7-sandwich: 7 1 3 1 6 4 3 5 7 2 4 6 2 5 there are 7 numbers between the 7s, 6 between the 6s etc. The article shows which values of n can make n-sandwiches and which cannot.
Magic Squares II
Stage: 4 and 5
An article which gives an account of some properties of magic squares.
Yih or Luk Tsut K'i or Three Men's Morris
Stage: 3, 4 and 5 Challenge Level:
Some puzzles requiring no knowledge of knot theory, just a careful inspection of the patterns. A glimpse of the classification of knots and a little about prime knots, crossing numbers and. . . .
Mouhefanggai
Stage: 4
Imagine two identical cylindrical pipes meeting at right angles and think about the shape of the space which belongs to both pipes. Early Chinese mathematicians call this shape the mouhefanggai.
Always Perfect
Stage: 4 Challenge Level:
Show that if you add 1 to the product of four consecutive numbers the answer is ALWAYS a perfect square.
Some Circuits in Graph or Network Theory
Stage: 4 and 5
Eulerian and Hamiltonian circuits are defined with some simple examples and a couple of puzzles to illustrate Hamiltonian circuits.
Whole Number Dynamics IV
Stage: 4 and 5
Start with any whole number N, write N as a multiple of 10 plus a remainder R and produce a new whole number N'. Repeat. What happens?
Whole Number Dynamics V
Stage: 4 and 5
The final of five articles which containe the proof of why the sequence introduced in article IV either reaches the fixed point 0 or the sequence enters a repeating cycle of four values.
Long Short
Stage: 4 Challenge Level:
A quadrilateral inscribed in a unit circle has sides of lengths s1, s2, s3 and s4 where s1 ≤ s2 ≤ s3 ≤ s4. Find a quadrilateral of this type for which s1= sqrt2 and show s1 cannot. . . .
Tree Graphs
Stage: 4 Challenge Level:
A connected graph is a graph in which we can get from any vertex to any other by travelling along the edges. A tree is a connected graph with no closed circuits (or loops. Prove that every tree. . . .
Converse
Stage: 4 Challenge Level:
Clearly if a, b and c are the lengths of the sides of a triangle and the triangle is equilateral then a^2 + b^2 + c^2 = ab + bc + ca. Is the converse true, and if so can you prove it? That is if. . . .
Knight Defeated
Stage: 4 Challenge Level:
The knight's move on a chess board is 2 steps in one direction and one step in the other direction. Prove that a knight cannot visit every square on the board once and only (a tour) on a 2 by n board. . . .
Breaking the Equation ' Empirical Argument = Proof '
Stage: 2, 3, 4 and 5
This article stems from research on the teaching of proof and offers guidance on how to move learners from focussing on experimental arguments to mathematical arguments and deductive reasoning.
Gift of Gems
Stage: 4 Challenge Level:
Four jewellers possessing respectively eight rubies, ten saphires, a hundred pearls and five diamonds, presented, each from his own stock, one apiece to the rest in token of regard; and they. . . .
Diophantine N-tuples
Stage: 4 Challenge Level:
Take any whole number q. Calculate q^2 - 1. Factorize q^2-1 to give two factors a and b (not necessarily q+1 and q-1). Put c = a + b + 2q . Then you will find that ab+1 , bc+1 and ca+1 are all. . . .
Euler's Squares
Stage: 4 Challenge Level:
Euler found four whole numbers such that the sum of any two of the numbers is a perfect square. Three of the numbers that he found are a = 18530, b=65570, c=45986. Find the fourth number, x. You. . . .
Problem Solving, Using and Applying and Functional Mathematics
Stage: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 Challenge Level:
Problem solving is at the heart of the NRICH site. All the problems give learners opportunities to learn, develop or use mathematical concepts and skills. Read here for more information.
There's a Limit
Stage: 4 and 5 Challenge Level:
Explore the continued fraction: 2+3/(2+3/(2+3/2+...)) What do you notice when successive terms are taken? What happens to the terms if the fraction goes on indefinitely?
Doodles
Stage: 4 Challenge Level:
A 'doodle' is a closed intersecting curve drawn without taking pencil from paper. Only two lines cross at each intersection or vertex (never 3), that is the vertex points must be 'double points' not. . . .
Russian Cubes
Stage: 4 Challenge Level:
How many different cubes can be painted with three blue faces and three red faces? A boy (using blue) and a girl (using red) paint the faces of a cube in turn so that the six faces are painted. . . .
Proximity
Stage: 4 Challenge Level:
We are given a regular icosahedron having three red vertices. Show that it has a vertex that has at least two red neighbours.
Natural Sum
Stage: 4 Challenge Level:
The picture illustrates the sum 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = (4 x 5)/2. Prove the general formula for the sum of the first n natural numbers and the formula for the sum of the cubes of the first n natural. . . .
No Right Angle Here
Stage: 4 Challenge Level:
Prove that the internal angle bisectors of a triangle will never be perpendicular to each other.
The Great Weights Puzzle
Stage: 4 Challenge Level:
You have twelve weights, one of which is different from the rest. Using just 3 weighings, can you identify which weight is the odd one out, and whether it is heavier or lighter than the rest?
Air Nets
Stage: 2, 3, 4 and 5 Challenge Level:
Can you visualise whether these nets fold up into 3D shapes? Watch the videos each time to see if you were correct.
Picture Story
Stage: 4 Challenge Level:
Can you see how this picture illustrates the formula for the sum of the first six cube numbers?
Proof: A Brief Historical Survey
Stage: 4 and 5
If you think that mathematical proof is really clearcut and universal then you should read this article.
Salinon
Stage: 4 Challenge Level:
This shape comprises four semi-circles. What is the relationship between the area of the shaded region and the area of the circle on AB as diameter?
Find the Fake
Stage: 4 Challenge Level:
There are 12 identical looking coins, one of which is a fake. The counterfeit coin is of a different weight to the rest. What is the minimum number of weighings needed to locate the fake coin?
Iffy Logic
Stage: 4 Short Challenge Level:
Can you rearrange the cards to make a series of correct mathematical statements?
Geometry and Gravity 2
Stage: 3, 4 and 5
This is the second of two articles and discusses problems relating to the curvature of space, shortest distances on surfaces, triangulations of surfaces and representation by graphs.
Proof Sorter - Quadratic Equation
Stage: 4 and 5 Challenge Level:
This is an interactivity in which you have to sort the steps in the completion of the square into the correct order to prove the formula for the solutions of quadratic equations.
Dalmatians
Stage: 4 and 5 Challenge Level:
Investigate the sequences obtained by starting with any positive 2 digit number (10a+b) and repeatedly using the rule 10a+b maps to 10b-a to get the next number in the sequence.
DOTS Division
Stage: 4 Challenge Level:
Take any pair of two digit numbers x=ab and y=cd where, without loss of generality, ab > cd . Form two 4 digit numbers r=abcd and s=cdab and calculate: {r^2 - s^2} /{x^2 - y^2}.
A Biggy
Stage: 4 Challenge Level:
Find the smallest positive integer N such that N/2 is a perfect cube, N/3 is a perfect fifth power and N/5 is a perfect seventh power.
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