This collection of tasks is part of the activities for 14-16 year olds section of the Maths At Home feature. The activities below are worth exploring over a few days, or even a few weeks! The stars represent the challenge level, with three stars indicating the most challenging activities.
You may also wish to explore Maths to Take Your Time Over for 11-14 year olds, and Maths to Take Your Time Over for 16-18 year olds.
problem
Generating triples
Age
14 to 16
Challenge level
Sets of integers like 3, 4, 5 are called Pythagorean Triples, because they could be the lengths of the sides of a right-angled triangle. Can you find any more?
problem
Picturing the world
Age
14 to 16
Challenge level
How can we make sense of national and global statistics involving very large numbers?
problem
What's possible?
Age
14 to 16
Challenge level
Many numbers can be expressed as the difference of two perfect squares. What do you notice about the numbers you CANNOT make?
problem
Funny factorisation
Age
11 to 16
Challenge level
Using the digits 1 to 9, the number 4396 can be written as the product of two numbers. Can you find the factors?