April 2000, All Stages

Problems

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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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Midpoint Triangle

Stage: 2 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:1

Can you cut up a square in the way shown and make the pieces into a triangle?

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Knight's Swap

Stage: 2 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:1

Swap the stars with the moons, using only knights' moves (as on a chess board). What is the smallest number of moves possible?

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Book Codes

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

Look on the back of any modern book and you will find an ISBN code. Take this code and calculate this sum in the way shown. Can you see what the answers always have in common?

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World of Tan - Gat Marn

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

Can you fit the tangram pieces into the outline of this plaque design?

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A Rod and a Pole

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

A lady has a steel rod and a wooden pole and she knows the length of each. How can she measure out an 8 unit piece of pole?

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Ice Cream

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

You cannot choose a selection of ice cream flavours that includes totally what someone has already chosen. Have a go and find all the different ways in which seven children can have ice cream.

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Read This Page

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

Replace the letters with numbers to make the addition work out correctly. R E A D + T H I S = P A G E

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Good Work If You Can Get It

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

A job needs three men but in fact six people do it. When it is finished they are all paid the same. How much was paid in total, and much does each man get if the money is shared as Fred suggests?

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Pick

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

Investigate polygons with all the vertices on the lattice points of a grid. For each polygon, work out the area A, the number B of points on the boundary and the number of points (I) inside. . . .

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Days and Dates

Stage: 4 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:1

Investigate how you can work out what day of the week your birthday will be on next year, and the year after...

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Never Prime

Stage: 4 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:2 Challenge Level:2

If a two digit number has its digits reversed and the smaller of the two numbers is subtracted from the larger, prove the difference can never be prime.

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The Medieval Octagon

Stage: 4 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:2 Challenge Level:2

Medieval stonemasons used a method to construct octagons using ruler and compasses... Is the octagon regular? Proof please.

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LOGO Challenge - Pentagram Pylons

Stage: 3, 4 and 5 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3

Pentagram Pylons - can you elegantly recreate them? Or, the European flag in LOGO - what poses the greater problem?

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Areas and Ratios

Stage: 4 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3

What is the area of the quadrilateral APOQ? Working on the building blocks will give you some insights that may help you to work it out.

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Napoleon's Hat

Stage: 5 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:1

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?

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Shape and Territory

Stage: 5 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:1

If for any triangle ABC tan(A - B) + tan(B - C) + tan(C - A) = 0 what can you say about the triangle?

Elsewhere...