Resources tagged with Patterned numbers similar to Four Coloured Lights:
Other tags that relate to Four Coloured Lights
Mathematical reasoning & proof. Making and testing hypotheses. Working systematically. Properties of numbers. Patterned numbers. Selecting and using information. Integers. Generalising. Factors and multiples. Multiplication & division.There are 45 results
Broad Topics > Numbers and the Number System > Patterned numbers
Four Coloured Lights
Stage: 3 Challenge Level: 
Imagine a machine with four coloured lights which respond to different rules. Can you find the smallest possible number which will make all four colours light up?
Chameleons
Stage: 3 Challenge Level:
Whenever two chameleons of different colours meet they change colour to the third colour. Describe the shortest sequence of meetings in which all the chameleons change to green if you start with 12. . . .
Can You Find a Perfect Number?
Stage: 2 and 3
Can you find any perfect numbers? Read this article to find out more...
Score
Stage: 3 Challenge Level:
There are exactly 3 ways to add 4 odd numbers to get 10. Find all the ways of adding 8 odd numbers to get 20. To be sure of getting all the solutions you will need to be systematic. What about. . . .
Like Powers
Stage: 3 Challenge Level:
Investigate $1^n + 19^n + 20^n + 51^n + 57^n + 80^n + 82^n $ and $2^n + 12^n + 31^n + 40^n + 69^n + 71^n + 85^n$ for different values of n.
Small Change
Stage: 3 Challenge Level:
In how many ways can a pound (value 100 pence) be changed into some combination of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 50 pence coins?
Investigating Pascal's Triangle
Stage: 2 and 3 Challenge Level:
In this investigation, we look at Pascal's Triangle in a slightly different way - rotated and with the top line of ones taken off.
Colour Building
Stage: 3 Challenge Level:
Using only the red and white rods, how many different ways are there to make up the other colours of rod?
Top-heavy Pyramids
Stage: 3 Challenge Level:
Use the numbers in the box below to make the base of a top-heavy pyramid whose top number is 200.
Always the Same
Stage: 3 Challenge Level:
Arrange the numbers 1 to 16 into a 4 by 4 array. Choose a number. Cross out the numbers on the same row and column. Repeat this process. Add up you four numbers. Why do they always add up to 34?
Whole Number Dynamics I
Stage: 4 and 5
The first of five articles concentrating on whole number dynamics, ideas of general dynamical systems are introduced and seen in concrete cases.
Icosagram
Stage: 3 Challenge Level:
Draw a pentagon with all the diagonals. This is called a pentagram. How many diagonals are there? How many diagonals are there in a hexagram, heptagram, ... Does any pattern occur when looking at. . . .
Odd Differences
Stage: 4 Challenge Level:
The diagram illustrates the formula: 1 + 3 + 5 + ... + (2n - 1) = n² Use the diagram to show that any odd number is the difference of two squares.
Pattern Power
Stage: 1, 2 and 3
Mathematics is the study of patterns. Studying pattern is an opportunity to observe, hypothesise, experiment, discover and create.
Whole Number Dynamics IV
Stage: 4 and 5
Start with any whole number N, write N as a multiple of 10 plus a remainder R and produce a new whole number N'. Repeat. What happens?
You Owe Me Five Farthings, Say the Bells of St Martin's
Stage: 3 Challenge Level:
Use the interactivity to listen to the bells ringing a pattern. Now it's your turn! Play one of the bells yourself. How do you know when it is your turn to ring?
When Will You Pay Me? Say the Bells of Old Bailey
Stage: 3 Challenge Level:
Use the interactivity to play two of the bells in a pattern. How do you know when it is your turn to ring, and how do you know which bell to ring?
Oranges and Lemons, Say the Bells of St Clement's
Stage: 3 Challenge Level:
Bellringers have a special way to write down the patterns they ring. Learn about these patterns and draw some of your own.
Sum Equals Product
Stage: 3 Challenge Level:
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 × 1 [1/3]. What other numbers have the sum equal to the product and can this be so for. . . .
Mindreader
Stage: 3 Challenge Level:
A little bit of algebra explains this 'magic'. Ask a friend to pick 3 consecutive numbers and to tell you a multiple of 3. Then ask them to add the four numbers and multiply by 67, and to tell you. . . .
Pinned Squares
Stage: 3 Challenge Level:
The diagram shows a 5 by 5 geoboard with 25 pins set out in a square array. Squares are made by stretching rubber bands round specific pins. What is the total number of squares that can be made on a. . . .
Whole Number Dynamics II
Stage: 4 and 5
This article extends the discussions in "Whole number dynamics I". Continuing the proof that, for all starting points, the Happy Number sequence goes into a loop or homes in on a fixed point.
Harmonic Triangle
Stage: 4 Challenge Level:
Can you see how to build a harmonic triangle? Can you work out the next two rows?
On the Importance of Pedantry
Stage: 3, 4 and 5
A introduction to how patterns can be deceiving, and what is and is not a proof.
Tower of Hanoi
Stage: 3 Challenge Level:
The Tower of Hanoi is an ancient mathematical challenge. Working on the building blocks may help you to explain the patterns you notice.
Magic Squares II
Stage: 4 and 5
An article which gives an account of some properties of magic squares.
How Many Miles to Go?
Stage: 3 Challenge Level:
How many more miles must the car travel before the numbers on the milometer and the trip meter contain the same digits in the same order?
Whole Number Dynamics III
Stage: 4 and 5
In this third of five articles we prove that whatever whole number we start with for the Happy Number sequence we will always end up with some set of numbers being repeated over and over again.
Power Crazy
Stage: 3 Challenge Level:
What can you say about the values of n that make $7^n + 3^n$ a multiple of 10? Are there other pairs of integers between 1 and 10 which have similar properties?
Magic Squares
Stage: 4 and 5
An account of some magic squares and their properties and and how to construct them for yourself.
Whole Number Dynamics V
Stage: 4 and 5
The final of five articles which containe the proof of why the sequence introduced in article IV either reaches the fixed point 0 or the sequence enters a repeating cycle of four values.
Hidden Rectangles
Stage: 3 Challenge Level:
Rectangles are considered different if they vary in size or have different locations. How many different rectangles can be drawn on a chessboard?
Generating Number Patterns: an Email Conversation
Stage: 2, 3 and 4
This article for teachers describes the exchanges on an email talk list about ideas for an investigation which has the sum of the squares as its solution.
Rolling Coins
Stage: 4 Challenge Level:
A blue coin rolls round two yellow coins which touch. The coins are the same size. How many revolutions does the blue coin make when it rolls all the way round the yellow coins? Investigate for a. . . .
Paving Paths
Stage: 3 Challenge Level:
How many different ways can I lay 10 paving slabs, each 2 foot by 1 foot, to make a path 2 foot wide and 10 foot long from my back door into my garden, without cutting any of the paving slabs?
One Basket or Group Photo
Stage: 2, 3, 4 and 5 Challenge Level:
Libby Jared helped to set up NRICH and this is one of her favourite problems. It's a problem suitable for a wide age range and best tackled practically.
Squares, Squares and More Squares
Stage: 3 Challenge Level:
Can you dissect a square into: 4, 7, 10, 13... other squares? 6, 9, 12, 15... other squares? 8, 11, 14... other squares?
How Old Am I?
Stage: 4 Challenge Level:
In 15 years' time my age will be the square of my age 15 years ago. Can you work out my age, and when I had other special birthdays?
Walkabout
Stage: 4 Challenge Level:
A walk is made up of diagonal steps from left to right, starting at the origin and ending on the x-axis. How many paths are there for 4 steps, for 6 steps, for 8 steps?
Counting Binary Ops
Stage: 4 Challenge Level:
How many ways can the terms in an ordered list be combined by repeating a single binary operation. Show that for 4 terms there are 5 cases and find the number of cases for 5 terms and 6 terms.
NRICH is part of the family of activities in the Millennium Mathematics Project.