Interpreting and Evaluating - January 2009, Stage 1&2

This month our problems involve aspects of the process of interpreting the information in a question and examining in various ways the solution or methods used to get the solution. For example, are the assumptions and arguments made correct or appropriate? How does the solution relate to the initial problem? Can we make sense of someone else's finding? Can we compare strategies used?

Problems

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What Shape and Colour?

Stage: 1 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:1

Can you fill in the empty boxes in the grid with the right shape and colour?

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What Number

Stage: 1 Short Challenge Level: Challenge Level:2 Challenge Level:2

I am less than 25. My ones digit is twice my tens digit. My digits add up to an even number.

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Colouring Triangles

Stage: 1 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:2 Challenge Level:2

Explore ways of colouring this set of triangles. Can you make symmetrical patterns?

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Mixed-up Socks

Stage: 1 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:2 Challenge Level:2

Start with three pairs of socks. Now mix them up so that no mismatched pair is the same as another mismatched pair. Is there more than one way to do it?

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Zios and Zepts

Stage: 2 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:1

On the planet Vuv there are two sorts of creatures. The Zios have 3 legs and the Zepts have 7 legs. The great planetary explorer Nico counted 52 legs. How many Zios and how many Zepts were there?

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Egyptian Rope

Stage: 2 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:2 Challenge Level:2

The ancient Egyptians were said to make right-angled triangles using a rope with twelve equal sections divided by knots. What other triangles could you make if you had a rope like this?

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Wag Worms

Stage: 2 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3

When intergalactic Wag Worms are born they look just like a cube. Each year they grow another cube in any direction. Find all the shapes that five-year-old Wag Worms can be.

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Watch the Clock

Stage: 2 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3

During the third hour after midnight the hands on a clock point in the same direction (so one hand is over the top of the other). At what time, to the nearest second, does this happen?

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