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This month there is a Friday the thirteenth and this year there are three. Can you explain why every year must contain at least one Friday the thirteenth?
Is this eco-system sustainable?
Christmas trees are planted in a rectangular array of 10 rows and 12 columns. The farmer chooses the shortest tree in each of the columns... the tallest tree from each of the rows ... Which is. . . .
Sometime during every hour the minute hand lies directly above the hour hand. At what time between 4 and 5 o'clock does this happen?
In a league of 5 football teams which play in a round robin tournament show that it is possible for all five teams to be league leaders.
This article for pupils gives an introduction to Celtic knotwork patterns and a feel for how you can draw them.
The triathlon is a physically gruelling challenge. Can you work out which athlete burnt the most calories?
Mike and Monisha meet at the race track, which is 400m round. Just to make a point, Mike runs anticlockwise whilst Monisha runs clockwise. Where will they meet on their way around and will they ever. . . .
A car is travelling along a dual carriageway at constant speed. Every 3 minutes a bus passes going in the opposite direction, while every 6 minutes a bus passes the car travelling in the same. . . .
Two cyclists, practising on a track, pass each other at the starting line and go at constant speeds... Can you find lap times that are such that the cyclists will meet exactly half way round the. . . .
A manager of a forestry company has to decide which trees to plant. What strategy for planting and felling would you recommend to the manager in order to maximise the profit?
This article for students gives some instructions about how to make some different braids.
PhysNRICH is the area of the StemNRICH site devoted to the mathematics underlying the study of physics
Suppose you are a bellringer. Can you find the changes so that, starting and ending with a round, all the 24 possible permutations are rung once each and only once?
Basic strategy games are particularly suitable as starting points for investigations. Players instinctively try to discover a winning strategy, and usually the best way to do this is to analyse. . . .
The second in a series of articles on visualising and modelling shapes in the history of astronomy.
A bus route has a total duration of 40 minutes. Every 10 minutes, two buses set out, one from each end. How many buses will one bus meet on its way from one end to the other end?
The King showed the Princess a map of the maze and the Princess was allowed to decide which room she would wait in. She was not allowed to send a copy to her lover who would have to guess which path. . . .
Investigate circuits and record your findings in this simple introduction to truth tables and logic.
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.
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 record. . . .
If it takes four men one day to build a wall, how long does it take 60,000 men to build a similar wall?
At Holborn underground station there is a very long escalator. Two people are in a hurry and so climb the escalator as it is moving upwards, thus adding their speed to that of the moving steps. . . .
Can you suggest a curve to fit some experimental data? Can you work out where the data might have come from?
What is the shape and dimensions of a box that will contain six cups and have as small a surface area as possible.
Every day at noon a boat leaves Le Havre for New York while another boat leaves New York for Le Havre. The ocean crossing takes seven days. How many boats will each boat cross during their journey?
chemNRICH is the area of the stemNRICH site devoted to the mathematics underlying the study of chemistry, designed to help develop the mathematics required to get the most from your study. . . .
This article for students introduces the idea of naming knots using numbers. You'll need some paper and something to write with handy!
Explore the transformations and comment on what you find.
How do you write a computer program that creates the illusion of stretching elastic bands between pegs of a Geoboard? The answer contains some surprising mathematics.
Build a scaffold out of drinking-straws to support a cup of water
Formulate and investigate a simple mathematical model for the design of a table mat.
Use the computer to model an epidemic. Try out public health policies to control the spread of the epidemic, to minimise the number of sick days and deaths.
Simple models which help us to investigate how epidemics grow and die out.
Fancy a game of cricket? Here is a mathematical version you can play indoors without breaking any windows.
In this article for teachers, Alan Parr looks at ways that mathematics teaching and learning can start from the useful and interesting things can we do with the subject, including. . . .
How does the time of dawn and dusk vary? What about the Moon, how does that change from night to night? Is the Sun always the same? Gather data to help you explore these questions.
It is possible to identify a particular card out of a pack of 15 with the use of some mathematical reasoning. What is this reasoning and can it be applied to other numbers of cards?
bioNRICH is the area of the stemNRICH site devoted to the mathematics underlying the study of the biological sciences, designed to help develop the mathematics required to get the most from your. . . .
Euler discussed whether or not it was possible to stroll around Koenigsberg crossing each of its seven bridges exactly once. Experiment with different numbers of islands and bridges.
To win on a scratch card you have to uncover three numbers that add up to more than fifteen. What is the probability of winning a prize?
Chris is enjoying a swim but needs to get back for lunch. If she can swim at 3 m/s and run at 7m/sec, how far along the bank should she land in order to get back as quickly as possible?
The third installment in our series on the shape of astronomical systems, this article explores galaxies and the universe beyond our solar system.
Blue Flibbins are so jealous of their red partners that they will not leave them on their own with any other bue Flibbin. What is the quickest way of getting the five pairs of Flibbins safely to. . . .
On a clock the three hands - the second, minute and hour hands - are on the same axis. How often in a 24 hour day will the second hand be parallel to either of the two other hands?
The builders have dug a hole in the ground to be filled with concrete for the foundations of our garage. How many cubic metres of ready-mix concrete should the builders order to fill this hole to. . . .
32 x 38 = 30 x 40 + 2 x 8; 34 x 36 = 30 x 40 + 4 x 6; 56 x 54 = 50 x 60 + 6 x 4; 73 x 77 = 70 x 80 + 3 x 7 Verify and generalise if possible.
First of all, pick the number of times a week that you would like to eat chocolate. Multiply this number by 2...