### Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee

Two brothers were left some money, amounting to an exact number of pounds, to divide between them. DEE undertook the division. "But your heap is larger than mine!" cried DUM...

### Sum Equals Product

The sum of the numbers 4 and 1 [1/3] is the same as the product of 4 and 1 [1/3]; that is to say 4 + 1 [1/3] = 4 ï¿½ 1 [1/3]. What other numbers have the sum equal to the product and can this be so for any whole numbers?

### Special Sums and Products

Find some examples of pairs of numbers such that their sum is a factor of their product. eg. 4 + 12 = 16 and 4 × 12 = 48 and 16 is a factor of 48.

# Plutarch's Boxes

##### Age 11 to 14Challenge Level

According to Plutarch, the Greeks found all the rectangles with integer sides, whose areas are equal to their perimeters. Can you find them?

What rectangular boxes, with integer sides, have their surface areas equal to their volumes? One example is $4$ by $6$ by $12$.

How to do this? No doubt different people will suggest different methods. Suppose the dimensions of the box are $a$, $b$ and $c$ units where $a \leq b \leq c$ . You might like to show that the problem amounts to solving the equation$1 = 2/a + 2/ b + 2/c$ and then show $3 \leq a\leq 6 , 3 \leq b \leq 12 , 3 \leq c \leq 144$.

Knowing how far to go in the search, it is then easy to write a short program to find all possible boxes. You could use a spreadsheet. You could just go through all possible cases systematically as people would have done before the days of computers.