Creating squares - game
This resource is part of "Dotty Grids - Drawing Polygons"
In this game, two players take it in turns to click on a dot on the grid.
The winner is the first to have four vertices of a square in their colour.
Play a few games against the computer or a friend.
Full Screen and Mobile Version
Can you develop any winning strategies?
Can you suggest any mathematically interesting variations on the game?
You may be interested in the other problems in our Exploring mathematics on dotty grids Feature.
Modbury School sent us some ideas for this activity.
Will said:
Make a triangle with a hollow middle, then fill the middle dot in the top line and wait for the computer to make its desicion.
I think you mean like this:
Image
Then go in the opposite position,
You win, every time you decide you want to win.
USE THAT METHOD TO WIN.
George said;
Our soloution is to go three across one down in the centre of your three
Image
Image
Then any of the three red dots from the picture above, will complete a square. Since the opponent can only occupy one of them, you will always have another dot to go to and win.
Thank you all who were involved at Modbury, we hope to hear from you again.
For ideas on how this problem and others from the Dotty Grids Collections can be used in the classroom, you may be interested to read this article.