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#### Resources tagged with Mathematical reasoning & proof similar to Root Tracker:

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### There are 186 results

Broad Topics > Using, Applying and Reasoning about Mathematics > Mathematical reasoning & proof

### 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.

### Thousand Words

##### Stage: 5 Challenge Level:

Here the diagram says it all. Can you find the diagram?

### The Triangle Game

##### Stage: 3 and 4 Challenge Level:

Can you discover whether this is a fair game?

### Target Six

##### Stage: 5 Challenge Level:

Show that x = 1 is a solution of the equation x^(3/2) - 8x^(-3/2) = 7 and find all other solutions.

### Plus or Minus

##### Stage: 5 Challenge Level:

Make and prove a conjecture about the value of the product of the Fibonacci numbers $F_{n+1}F_{n-1}$.

### Golden Eggs

##### Stage: 5 Challenge Level:

Find a connection between the shape of a special ellipse and an infinite string of nested square roots.

### Square Mean

##### Stage: 4 Challenge Level:

Is the mean of the squares of two numbers greater than, or less than, the square of their means?

### To Prove or Not to Prove

##### Stage: 4 and 5

A serious but easily readable discussion of proof in mathematics with some amusing stories and some interesting examples.

### Mechanical Integration

##### Stage: 5 Challenge Level:

To find the integral of a polynomial, evaluate it at some special points and add multiples of these values.

##### Stage: 5 Challenge Level:

Find all positive integers a and b for which the two equations: x^2-ax+b = 0 and x^2-bx+a = 0 both have positive integer solutions.

### Proof Sorter - Geometric Series

##### Stage: 5 Challenge Level:

This is an interactivity in which you have to sort into the correct order the steps in the proof of the formula for the sum of a geometric series.

### Binomial

##### Stage: 5 Challenge Level:

By considering powers of (1+x), show that the sum of the squares of the binomial coefficients from 0 to n is 2nCn

### 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?

### Picture Story

##### Stage: 4 Challenge Level:

Can you see how this picture illustrates the formula for the sum of the first six cube numbers?

### 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. . . .

### Napoleon's Hat

##### Stage: 5 Challenge Level:

Three equilateral triangles ABC, AYX and XZB are drawn with the point X a moveable point on AB. The points P, Q and R are the centres of the three triangles. What can you say about triangle PQR?

### Transitivity

##### Stage: 5

Suppose A always beats B and B always beats C, then would you expect A to beat C? Not always! What seems obvious is not always true. Results always need to be proved in mathematics.

### Direct Logic

##### Stage: 5 Challenge Level:

Can you work through these direct proofs, using our interactive proof sorters?

### Sprouts Explained

##### 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 with. . . .

### Notty Logic

##### Stage: 5 Challenge Level:

Have a go at being mathematically negative, by negating these statements.

### The Clue Is in the Question

##### Stage: 5 Challenge Level:

This problem is a sequence of linked mini-challenges leading up to the proof of a difficult final challenge, encouraging you to think mathematically. Starting with one of the mini-challenges, how. . . .

### Dodgy Proofs

##### Stage: 5 Challenge Level:

These proofs are wrong. Can you see why?

### More Number Pyramids

##### Stage: 3 and 4 Challenge Level:

When number pyramids have a sequence on the bottom layer, some interesting patterns emerge...

### Pent

##### Stage: 4 and 5 Challenge Level:

The diagram shows a regular pentagon with sides of unit length. Find all the angles in the diagram. Prove that the quadrilateral shown in red is a rhombus.

### 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. . . .

### Sperner's Lemma

##### Stage: 5

An article about the strategy for playing The Triangle Game which appears on the NRICH site. It contains a simple lemma about labelling a grid of equilateral triangles within a triangular frame.

### More Sums of Squares

##### Stage: 5

Tom writes about expressing numbers as the sums of three squares.

### Proofs with Pictures

##### Stage: 5

Some diagrammatic 'proofs' of algebraic identities and inequalities.

### Where Do We Get Our Feet Wet?

##### Stage: 5

Professor Korner has generously supported school mathematics for more than 30 years and has been a good friend to NRICH since it started.

##### Stage: 5 Challenge Level:

Find all real solutions of the equation (x^2-7x+11)^(x^2-11x+30) = 1.

### Tree Graphs

##### Stage: 5 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 has. . . .

### Three Balls

##### Stage: 4 Challenge Level:

A circle has centre O and angle POR = angle QOR. Construct tangents at P and Q meeting at T. Draw a circle with diameter OT. Do P and Q lie inside, or on, or outside this circle?

### Pythagorean Golden Means

##### Stage: 5 Challenge Level:

Show that the arithmetic mean, geometric mean and harmonic mean of a and b can be the lengths of the sides of a right-angles triangle if and only if a = bx^3, where x is the Golden Ratio.

### Diverging

##### Stage: 5 Challenge Level:

Show that for natural numbers x and y if x/y > 1 then x/y>(x+1)/(y+1}>1. Hence prove that the product for i=1 to n of [(2i)/(2i-1)] tends to infinity as n tends to infinity.

### Basic Rhythms

##### Stage: 5 Challenge Level:

Explore a number pattern which has the same symmetries in different bases.

### Euler's Formula and Topology

##### Stage: 5

Here is a proof of Euler's formula in the plane and on a sphere together with projects to explore cases of the formula for a polygon with holes, for the torus and other solids with holes and the. . . .

### A Computer Program to Find Magic Squares

##### Stage: 5

This follows up the 'magic Squares for Special Occasions' article which tells you you to create a 4by4 magicsquare with a special date on the top line using no negative numbers and no repeats.

### Whole Number Dynamics II

##### Stage: 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.

### Diophantine N-tuples

##### Stage: 4 Challenge Level:

Can you explain why a sequence of operations always gives you perfect squares?

### Euclid's Algorithm II

##### Stage: 5

We continue the discussion given in Euclid's Algorithm I, and here we shall discover when an equation of the form ax+by=c has no solutions, and when it has infinitely many solutions.

### 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.

### 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.

### Mediant

##### Stage: 4 Challenge Level:

If you take two tests and get a marks out of a maximum b in the first and c marks out of d in the second, does the mediant (a+c)/(b+d)lie between the results for the two tests separately.

### Matter of Scale

##### Stage: 4 Challenge Level:

Prove Pythagoras' Theorem using enlargements and scale factors.

### 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.

### 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...

### Rhombus in Rectangle

##### Stage: 4 Challenge Level:

Take any rectangle ABCD such that AB > BC. The point P is on AB and Q is on CD. Show that there is exactly one position of P and Q such that APCQ is a rhombus.

### Square Pair Circles

##### Stage: 5 Challenge Level:

Investigate the number of points with integer coordinates on circles with centres at the origin for which the square of the radius is a power of 5.

### Composite Notions

##### Stage: 4 Challenge Level:

A composite number is one that is neither prime nor 1. Show that 10201 is composite in any base.