Sizing Them Up

'Sizing Them Up' printed from https://nrich.maths.org/

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Arrange these shapes in order of size. Put the smallest first.

How are you deciding on the order?

You may like to use the interactivity below to keep track of the order and/or to record your final solution.

Once you've had a chance to think about it, click below to see how four different pupils began working on the task.

Kelsey said:

"I printed the shapes and then measured the length of each shape at the longest point."

Louise and Rosie said:

"We observed the area of each and tried to rearrange the shapes in our heads to compare them."

Thomas said:

"I cut out the shapes then cut each up into little pieces and laid them on top of each other to see which was bigger. I also put them on a grid with small squares and counted the number of squares for each."

Can you take each of these starting ideas and develop it into a solution?

You may be interested in the other problems in our Celebrating Solutions Feature.