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Exploring Wild & Wonderful Number Patterns
EWWNP means Exploring Wild and Wonderful Number Patterns Created by Yourself! Investigate what happens if we create number patterns using some simple rules.
Magazines
Let's suppose that you are going to have a magazine which has 16 pages of A5 size. Can you find some different ways to make these pages? Investigate the pattern for each if you number the pages.
Pebbles
Place four pebbles on the sand in the form of a square. Keep adding as few pebbles as necessary to double the area. How many extra pebbles are added each time?
Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level
Most swimming pools are surrounded by tiles of some sort, like the pool in the photo above.
Imagine that we number the tiles around the pool.
In the image below, the pool takes up a 5 by 5 square and the space around the pool is five tiles wide:
Can you describe how the tiles are numbered?
Think about a series of numbers that you know about, for example square numbers, prime numbers, triangle numbers...
Explore where those numbers occur in the path around the pool.
What do you notice?
What happens if you look at the path those numbers make around a different sized pool? (You may find it useful to print off this sheet which includes pools of different sizes up to 7 by 7.)
Please let us know what you discover!
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NRICH is part of the family of activities in the Millennium Mathematics Project.
NRICH is part of the family of activities in the Millennium Mathematics Project.