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Resources tagged with Creating expressions/formulae similar to Simplifying Doughnut:

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Broad Topics > Algebra > Creating expressions/formulae

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Magic Sums and Products

Stage: 3 and 4

How to build your own magic squares.

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' Tis Whole

Stage: 4 and 5 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:2 Challenge Level:2

Take a few whole numbers away from a triangle number. If you know the mean of the remaining numbers can you find the triangle number and which numbers were removed?

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Sums of Pairs

Stage: 3 and 4 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:2 Challenge Level:2

Jo has three numbers which she adds together in pairs. When she does this she has three different totals: 11, 17 and 22 What are the three numbers Jo had to start with?”

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Janine's Conjecture

Stage: 4 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:2 Challenge Level:2

Janine noticed, while studying some cube numbers, that if you take three consecutive whole numbers and multiply them together and then add the middle number of the three, you get the middle number. . . .

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Fair Shares?

Stage: 4 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:2 Challenge Level:2

A mother wants to share a sum of money by giving each of her children in turn a lump sum plus a fraction of the remainder. How can she do this in order to share the money out equally?

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Back to Basics

Stage: 4 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3

Find b where 3723(base 10) = 123(base b).

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Pair Products

Stage: 4 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:1

Choose four consecutive whole numbers. Multiply the first and last numbers together. Multiply the middle pair together. What do you notice?

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Perfectly Square

Stage: 4 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:2 Challenge Level:2

The sums of the squares of three related numbers is also a perfect square - can you explain why?

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Leonardo's Problem

Stage: 4 and 5 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3

A, B & C own a half, a third and a sixth of a coin collection. Each grab some coins, return some, then share equally what they had put back, finishing with their own share. How rich are they?

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2-digit Square

Stage: 4 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3

A 2-Digit number is squared. When this 2-digit number is reversed and squared, the difference between the squares is also a square. What is the 2-digit number?

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Balance Point

Stage: 4 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3

Attach weights of 1, 2, 4, and 8 units to the four attachment points on the bar. Move the bar from side to side until you find a balance point. Is it possible to predict that position?

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Inside Outside

Stage: 4 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:1

Balance the bar with the three weight on the inside.

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Number Rules - OK

Stage: 4 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:2 Challenge Level:2

Can you convince me of each of the following: If a square number is multiplied by a square number the product is ALWAYS a square number...

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Archimedes and Numerical Roots

Stage: 4 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:2 Challenge Level:2

The problem is how did Archimedes calculate the lengths of the sides of the polygons which needed him to be able to calculate square roots?

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Mediant

Stage: 4 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:2 Challenge Level:2

If you take two tests and get a marks out of a maximum b in the first and c marks out of d in the second, does the mediant (a+c)/(b+d)lie between the results for the two tests separately.

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Pythagoras Proofs

Stage: 4 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:2 Challenge Level:2

Can you make sense of these three proofs of Pythagoras' Theorem?

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AMGM

Stage: 4 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3

Can you use the diagram to prove the AM-GM inequality?

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Unit Interval

Stage: 4 and 5 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:1

Take any two numbers between 0 and 1. Prove that the sum of the numbers is always less than one plus their product?

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Pareq Calc

Stage: 4 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3

Triangle ABC is an equilateral triangle with three parallel lines going through the vertices. Calculate the length of the sides of the triangle if the perpendicular distances between the parallel. . . .

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Multiplication Square

Stage: 4 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:2 Challenge Level:2

Pick a square within a multiplication square and add the numbers on each diagonal. What do you notice?

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The Pillar of Chios

Stage: 3 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3

Semicircles are drawn on the sides of a rectangle ABCD. A circle passing through points ABCD carves out four crescent-shaped regions. Prove that the sum of the areas of the four crescents is equal to. . . .

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How Big?

Stage: 3 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:2 Challenge Level:2

If the sides of the triangle in the diagram are 3, 4 and 5, what is the area of the shaded square?

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Square Pizza

Stage: 4 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3

Can you show that you can share a square pizza equally between two people by cutting it four times using vertical, horizontal and diagonal cuts through any point inside the square?

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Terminology

Stage: 4 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:2 Challenge Level:2

Given an equilateral triangle inside an isosceles triangle, can you find a relationship between the angles?

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Your Number Is...

Stage: 3 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:1

Think of a number... follow the machine's instructions. I know what your number is! Can you explain how I know?

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Cubes Within Cubes Revisited

Stage: 3 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3

Imagine starting with one yellow cube and covering it all over with a single layer of red cubes, and then covering that cube with a layer of blue cubes. How many red and blue cubes would you need?

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Always the Same

Stage: 3 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3

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?

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Your Number Was...

Stage: 3 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:1

Think of a number and follow my instructions. Tell me your answer, and I'll tell you what you started with! Can you explain how I know?

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Chocolate 2010

Stage: 4 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:1

First of all, pick the number of times a week that you would like to eat chocolate. Multiply this number by 2...

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Reasonable Algebra

Stage: 4 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3

Use algebra to reason why 16 and 32 are impossible to create as the sum of consecutive numbers.

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Partitioning Revisited

Stage: 3 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:1

We can show that (x + 1)² = x² + 2x + 1 by considering the area of an (x + 1) by (x + 1) square. Show in a similar way that (x + 2)² = x² + 4x + 4

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Seven Up

Stage: 3 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3

The number 27 is special because it is three times the sum of its digits 27 = 3 (2 + 7). Find some two digit numbers that are SEVEN times the sum of their digits (seven-up numbers)?

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Quick Times

Stage: 3 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3

32 x 38 = 30 x 40 + 2 x 8; 34 x 36 = 30 x 40 + 4 x 6; 56 x 54 = 50 x 60 + 6 x 4; 73 x 77 = 70 x 80 + 3 x 7 Verify and generalise if possible.

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Hike and Hitch

Stage: 4 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3

Fifteen students had to travel 60 miles. They could use a car, which could only carry 5 students. As the car left with the first 5 (at 40 miles per hour), the remaining 10 commenced hiking along the. . . .

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Mindreader

Stage: 3 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3

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. . . .

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Steel Cables

Stage: 4 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:1

Some students have been working out the number of strands needed for different sizes of cable. Can you make sense of their solutions?

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Boxed In

Stage: 3 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3

A box has faces with areas 3, 12 and 25 square centimetres. What is the volume of the box?

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Generating Triples

Stage: 4 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:1

Sets of integers like 3, 4, 5 are called Pythagorean Triples, because they could be the lengths of the sides of a right-angled triangle. Can you find any more?

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What's Possible?

Stage: 4 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:2 Challenge Level:2

Many numbers can be expressed as the difference of two perfect squares. What do you notice about the numbers you CANNOT make?

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Lens Angle

Stage: 4 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3

Find the missing angle between the two secants to the circle when the two angles at the centre subtended by the arcs created by the intersections of the secants and the circle are 50 and 120 degrees.

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Good Work If You Can Get It

Stage: 3 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:2 Challenge Level:2

A job needs three men but in fact six people do it. When it is finished they are all paid the same. How much was paid in total, and much does each man get if the money is shared as Fred suggests?

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Fibs

Stage: 3 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3

The well known Fibonacci sequence is 1 ,1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21.... How many Fibonacci sequences can you find containing the number 196 as one of the terms?

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Always a Multiple?

Stage: 3 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:2 Challenge Level:2

Think of a two digit number, reverse the digits, and add the numbers together. Something special happens...

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Crossed Ends

Stage: 3 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:1

Crosses can be drawn on number grids of various sizes. What do you notice when you add opposite ends?

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Marbles in a Box

Stage: 3 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:2 Challenge Level:2

How many winning lines can you make in a three-dimensional version of noughts and crosses?

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Number Pyramids

Stage: 3 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:1

Try entering different sets of numbers in the number pyramids. How does the total at the top change?

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More Number Pyramids

Stage: 3 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:2 Challenge Level:2

When number pyramids have a sequence on the bottom layer, some interesting patterns emerge...

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Seven Squares

Stage: 3 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:2 Challenge Level:2

Watch these videos to see how Phoebe, Alice and Luke chose to draw 7 squares. How would they draw 100?

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Triangles Within Triangles

Stage: 4 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:1

Can you find a rule which connects consecutive triangular numbers?

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Painted Cube

Stage: 3 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3

Imagine a large cube made from small red cubes being dropped into a pot of yellow paint. How many of the small cubes will have yellow paint on their faces?


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