List

SEAMC Published Shorts

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problem

Draining a pool

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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The water is being drained from a pool. After how long will the depth of the pool be 144 cm?
Cuboid faces
problem

Cuboid faces

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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Can you find the volume of a cuboid, given the areas of its faces?
Reverse ages
problem

Reverse ages

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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When is the next time that Brian's age will be the reverse of his father's age?
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problem

Multiplication Cube

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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The net shown is folded up to form a cube. What is the largest possible vertex product?
Adding and multiplying
problem

Adding and multiplying

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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Amy misread a question and got an incorrect answer. What should the answer have be?
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problem

Nested Squares

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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What proportion of the diagram is shaded?
Bouncing ball
problem

Bouncing ball

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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A ball is dropped from a height, and every time it hits the ground, it bounces to 3/5 of the height from which it fell.
Split clock face
problem

Split clock face

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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Use 2 straight lines to split the clock face into 3 parts so that the sums of the numbers in each of the parts are equal.
Giant Rubik's Cube
problem

Giant Rubik's Cube

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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How many cubes would be visible in a 12 by 12 by 12 Rubik’s cube?
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problem

rotation identification

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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Which of these can be obtained by rotating this shape?
Brothers and sisters
problem

Brothers and sisters

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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Can you work out how many brothers and sisters are in the family?
Missing Digits
problem

Missing Digits

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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Can you find the missing digits in this calculation?
speed over a bridge
problem

speed over a bridge

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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How fast is the train travelling as it goes over the bridge?
Hot Dogs
problem

Hot Dogs

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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How many hot dogs did this hot dog lover eat on the first day of her binge?
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problem

Strange dice

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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If two of these unusually numbered dice are thrown, how many different sums are possible?
Overlapping beer mats
problem

Overlapping beer mats

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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Can you find the area of the overlap when these two beer mats are placed on top of each other?
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problem

Range of averages

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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Find these 4 numbers, given their mode, median and range.
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Sum and differences

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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Three numbers add up to 100. The difference between the larger two is 12 and the difference between the smaller two is 2. What are the numbers?
Identical digit multiplication
problem

Identical digit multiplication

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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77 is multiplied by another two-digit number with identical digits. What is the product?
Divisible digits
problem

Divisible digits

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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Can you find the missing digits, given that the number is divisible by 3, 4, 5 and 6?
Choose the mean
problem

Choose the mean

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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Find 4 numbers which have a mean of 7, a median of 8 and a mode of 9.
2014 even numbers
problem

2014 even numbers

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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What is the difference between the sum of the first 2014 odd numbers and the sum of the first 2014 even numbers?
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problem

Rough rectangle

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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What is the smallest possible area that this rectangle could have?
Missing 9s
problem

Missing 9s

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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Sara makes a list of the whole numbers that do not contain any 9s. What is the 300th number on her list?
Red card blue card
problem

Red card blue card

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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Can you arrange the red and blue cards so that the rules are all followed?
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The average age

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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Given this information about averages, find the ages of these teachers.
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problem

Linear Area

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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Find the area of the triangle enclosed by these lines.
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problem

Tiled Floor

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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This tiled floor has 109 purple tiles. How many tiles are there altogether?
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problem

Diagonal Side

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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Can you work out the area of a square drawn on a diagonal?
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problem

Smallest Fraction

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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Which of these is the smallest?
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problem

Average temperature

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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The average temperature of six cities is 5$^\circ$C. What is the average temperature when two cities are added?
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Charlie's money

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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How much money did Charlie have to begin with?
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problem

Packing small boxes

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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How many small boxes will fit inside the big box?
Lattice points on a line
problem

Lattice points on a line

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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How many lattice points are there in the first quadrant that lie on the line 3x + 4y = 59 ?
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problem

Shifting Average

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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What happens to the average if you subtract 8 from all of the numbers?
Scalene area
problem

Scalene area

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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Can you find the area of this scalene triangle?
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problem

Square grid

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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Can you work out what fraction of this grid is shaded?
Graph Area
problem

Graph Area

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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Can you find the area between this graph and the x-axis, between x=3 and x=7?
Palindromic milometer
problem

Palindromic milometer

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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At the beginning and end of Alan's journey, his milometer showed a palindromic number. Can you find his maximum possible average speed?
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Clubs

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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How many students are in the maths club and the science club?
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The elephant diet

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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Use the relationship between the elephant and the rabbit to find out how many carrots the rabbit eats in a day
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problem

Tile border

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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What is the largest possible number of yellow tiles in this pattern?
Dividing a square
problem

Dividing a square

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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A square is divided into three shapes which all have equal areas. Can you find the length of this side?
Tilted tank
problem

Tilted tank

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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Can you find the height of the water in this tilted tank when it is flat?
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problem

French test

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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What was the average score in this French test?
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problem

between a sixth and a twelfth

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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The space on a number line between a sixth and a twelfth is split into 3 equal parts. Find the number indicated.
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problem

Roses and Carnations

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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How many different bunches of flowers can this class buy for their teacher?
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problem

Adding in Pairs

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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These are the results when 3 numbers were added in pairs. What were the numbers?
Multiplication Mistake
problem

Multiplication Mistake

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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Jane accidentally multiplied by 54 instead of 45, and her answer was 198 too big. What number did she multiply 54 by?
Sum of 1s
problem

Sum of 1s

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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Can you find the last 5 digits of this sum?
Black and gold storeys
problem

Black and gold storeys

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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25 of the storeys of a 50 storey building are painted gold, and the rest are painted black...
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problem

Add all the angles

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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Find the sum of all of the angles denoted by letters in this diagram
Leap Monday
problem

Leap Monday

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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Can you find the next time that the 29th of February will fall on a Monday?
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problem

Rain

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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How many dry days did Aisha have on her holiday?
Clock angle
problem

Clock angle

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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What is the angle between the the hands of a clock at 8:24?
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problem

Washing elephants

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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How long will it take Mary and Nigel to wash an elephant if they work together?
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problem

Divisible by 55

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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Choose the digits $a$ and $b$ so that this number is divisible by 55.
Committees
problem

Committees

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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Every member of the club is a member of two committees. How many members are there in the club?
last digit
problem

last digit

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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What is the last digit in this calculation involving powers?
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Number of arms

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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What is the probability that the next person you meet has an above average number of arms?
tricky fractions
problem

tricky fractions

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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Use this series of fractions to find the value of x.
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problem

How Shady?

Age
11 to 14
Challenge level
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What fraction of this triangle is shaded?
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Cat on a wall

Age
14 to 16
Challenge level
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How high is the wall that this cat is lying on?
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length, width and area

Age
14 to 16
Challenge level
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The area of a rectangle is 225 square units. Find its width.
Mean balance
problem

Mean balance

Age
14 to 16
Challenge level
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Given information about the mean, can you work out the missing numbers?
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problem

Ratio of areas

Age
14 to 16
Challenge level
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What is the ratio of the area of the hexagon to the area of the triangle?
Table Total
problem

Table Total

Age
14 to 16
Challenge level
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Can you find the sum of all of the numbers in the table?
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The power of the sum

Age
14 to 16
Challenge level
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What is this sum, expressed as a power of 2?
Swapping Sweets
problem

Swapping Sweets

Age
14 to 16
Challenge level
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If two girls each take a sweet from each other's bags, what is the probability that they end up with what they started with?
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problem

Which face?

Age
14 to 16
Challenge level
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Which faces are opposite each other when this net is folded into a cube?
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problem

Root 2017

Age
14 to 16
Challenge level
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Between which two whole numbers is $\sqrt{2017}$ $?$
Placeholder: several colourful numbers
problem

Power up to 1000

Age
14 to 16
Challenge level
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Find $x+y$, where $2^x\times5^y=1000$
Flipping coins
problem

Flipping coins

Age
14 to 16
Challenge level
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A coin is flipped 4 times. What is the probability of getting heads at least 3 times?
Bobbly perimeter
problem

Bobbly perimeter

Age
14 to 16
Challenge level
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Find the perimeter of this shape made of semicircles
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problem

Stacked cubes

Age
14 to 16
Challenge level
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What is the total surface area of this shape?
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How many squares?

Age
14 to 16
Challenge level
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How many 4-digit numbers are perfect squares?
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Arc Radius

Age
14 to 16
Challenge level
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Two arcs are drawn in a right-angled triangle as shown. What is the length $r$?
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problem

rotation and area

Age
14 to 16
Challenge level
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Point A is rotated to point B. Can you find the area of the triangle that these points make with the origin?
Winding vine
problem

Winding vine

Age
14 to 16
Challenge level
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A vine is growing up a pole. Can you find its length?
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problem

root estimation

Age
14 to 16
Challenge level
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Which of these is the best approximation for this square root?
Placeholder: several colourful numbers
problem

Thousands of x

Age
14 to 16
Challenge level
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Can you solve this scary-looking equation?
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problem

Big product

Age
14 to 16
Challenge level
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How many digits are there in this product?
Square to a rectangle
problem

Square to a rectangle

Age
14 to 16
Challenge level
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Kevin has moved some tiles to change the shape of his patio from a square to a rectangle. What are the lengths of the sides of the rectangle?
Placeholder: several colourful numbers
problem

Difference Sequence

Age
14 to 16
Challenge level
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When will 2000 appear in this sequence?
Semicircle distance
problem

Semicircle distance

Age
14 to 16
Challenge level
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Can you find the shortest distance between the semicircles given the area between them?
Placeholder: several colourful numbers
problem

Similar perimeter

Age
14 to 16
Challenge level
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What are the possible perimeters of the larger triangle?
Placeholder: several colourful numbers
problem

Three right angles

Age
14 to 16
Challenge level
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Work your way through these right-angled triangles to find $x$.
Placeholder: several colourful numbers
problem

Dolly Dolphin

Age
14 to 16
Challenge level
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Can you find Dolly Dolphin's average speed as she swims with and against the current?
Placeholder: several colourful numbers
problem

Doubly isosceles

Age
14 to 16
Challenge level
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Find the missing distance in this diagram with two isosceles triangles
Placeholder: several colourful numbers
problem

Maximum mean

Age
14 to 16
Challenge level
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What is the largest that the mean of these numbers could be?
Cones and spheres
problem

Cones and spheres

Age
14 to 16
Challenge level
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A solid metal cone is melted down and turned into spheres. How many spheres can be made?
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problem

Square and triangle

Age
14 to 16
Challenge level
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Can you find the area of the yellow square?
Placeholder: several colourful numbers
problem

Order the Products

Age
14 to 16
Challenge level
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Can you put these products in order of size?
Placeholder: several colourful numbers
problem

Odd Dice

Age
14 to 16
Challenge level
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These strange dice are rolled. What is the probability that the sum obtained is an odd number?