This month: Stage 1&2 Stage 2&3 Stage 3&4 Stage 5

26 Matches in Stage 5

Sums of Squares

Stage: 5 Challenge Level:

Prove that 3 times the sum of 3 squares is the sum of 4 squares. Rather easier, can you prove that twice the sum of two squares always gives the sum of two squares?

Product Sudoku

Stage: 3, 4 and 5 Challenge Level:

The clues for this Sudoku are the product of the numbers in adjacent squares.

Product Sudoku 2

Stage: 3, 4 and 5 Challenge Level:

Given the products of diagonally opposite cells - can you complete this Sudoku?

Stats Statements

Stage: 5 Challenge Level:

Are these statistical statements sometimes, always or never true? Or it is impossible to say?

Talking about Maths - 1

Stage: 2, 3, 4 and 5

The first of two articles for teachers explaining how to include talk in maths presentations.

The Mean Game

Stage: 5

Edward Wallace based his A Level Statistics Project on The Mean Game. Each picks 2 numbers. The winner is the player who picks a number closest to the mean of all the numbers picked.

Round-robin Scheduling

Stage: 4 and 5

Scheduling games is a little more challenging than one might desire. Here are some tournament formats that sport schedulers use.

Got a Strategy for Last Biscuit?

Stage: 3, 4 and 5 Challenge Level:

Can you beat the computer in the challenging strategy game?

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. . . .

Twin Corresponding Sudoku

Stage: 3, 4 and 5 Challenge Level:

This sudoku requires you to have "double vision" - two Sudoku's for the price of one

The Triangle Game

Stage: 3, 4 and 5 Challenge Level:

Can you discover whether this is a fair game?

Going First

Stage: 3, 4 and 5

This article shows how abstract thinking and a little number theory throw light on the scoring in Go.

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.

Pole Star Sudoku

Stage: 4 and 5 Challenge Level:

A Sudoku based on clues that give the differences between adjacent cells.

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. . . .

Behind the Rules of Go

Stage: 5

This article explains the use of the idea of connectedness in networks, in two different ways, to bring into focus the basics of the game of Go, namely capture and territory.

Quaternions and Rotations

Stage: 5 Challenge Level:

Find out how the quaternion function G(v) = qvq^-1 gives a simple algebraic method for working with rotations in 3-space.

The Use of Mathematics in Computer Games

Stage: 5

An account of how mathematics is used in computer games including geometry, vectors, transformations, 3D graphics, graph theory and simulations.

Taking Chances Extended

Stage: 4 and 5

This article, for students and teachers, is mainly about probability, the mathematical way of looking at random chance.

Cubic Net

Stage: 3, 4 and 5 Challenge Level:

This is an interactive net of a Rubik's cube. Twists of the 3D cube become mixes of the squares on the 2D net. Have a play and see how many scrambles you can undo!