The Scot, John Napier, invented these strips about 400 years ago to help calculate multiplication and division. Can you work out how to use Napier's bones to find the answer to these multiplications?
Number problems at primary level that may require resilience.
What do the digits in the number fifteen add up to? How many other numbers have digits with the same total but no zeros?
Number problems at primary level to work on with others.
Number problems at primary level that require careful consideration.
This multiplication uses each of the digits 0 - 9 once and once only. Using the information given, can you replace the stars in the calculation with figures?
In the multiplication calculation, some of the digits have been replaced by letters and others by asterisks. Can you reconstruct the original multiplication?
Can you replace the letters with numbers? Is there only one solution in each case?
This 100 square jigsaw is written in code. It starts with 1 and ends with 100. Can you build it up?
Some Games That May Be Nice or Nasty for an adult and child. Use your knowledge of place value to beat your opponent.
Each child in Class 3 took four numbers out of the bag. Who had made the highest even number?
Use two dice to generate two numbers with one decimal place. What happens when you round these numbers to the nearest whole number?
Four of these clues are needed to find the chosen number on this grid and four are true but do nothing to help in finding the number. Can you sort out the clues and find the number?
Can you work out some different ways to balance this equation?
What happens when you round these numbers to the nearest whole number?
What happens when you round these three-digit numbers to the nearest 100?
Can you complete this calculation by filling in the missing numbers? In how many different ways can you do it?
Have a go at balancing this equation. Can you find different ways of doing it?
In this 100 square, look at the green square which contains the numbers 2, 3, 12 and 13. What is the sum of the numbers that are diagonally opposite each other? What do you notice?
Start by putting one million (1 000 000) into the display of your calculator. Can you reduce this to 7 using just the 7 key and add, subtract, multiply, divide and equals as many times as you like?
A school song book contains 700 songs. The numbers of the songs are displayed by combining special small single-digit boards. What is the minimum number of small boards that is needed?
Becky created a number plumber which multiplies by 5 and subtracts 4. What do you notice about the numbers that it produces? Can you explain your findings?
Which is quicker, counting up to 30 in ones or counting up to 300 in tens? Why?
There are six numbers written in five different scripts. Can you sort out which is which?
Can you arrange the digits 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 into three 3-digit numbers such that their total is close to 1500?
Number problems for inquiring primary learners.
Choose any 3 digits and make a 6 digit number by repeating the 3 digits in the same order (e.g. 594594). Explain why whatever digits you choose the number will always be divisible by 7, 11 and 13.
Find the values of the nine letters in the sum: FOOT + BALL = GAME
What is the sum of all the digits in all the integers from one to one million?
Try out some calculations. Are you surprised by the results?
Investigate the different ways these aliens count in this challenge. You could start by thinking about how each of them would write our number 7.
The letters in the following addition sum represent the digits 1 ... 9. If A=3 and D=2, what number is represented by "CAYLEY"?
Dicey Operations for an adult and child. Can you get close to 1000 than your partner?
Powers of numbers behave in surprising ways. Take a look at some of these and try to explain why they are true.
Using balancing scales what is the least number of weights needed to weigh all integer masses from 1 to 1000? Placing some of the weights in the same pan as the object how many are needed?
Amazing as it may seem the three fives remaining in the following `skeleton' are sufficient to reconstruct the entire long division sum.
How many solutions can you find to this sum? Each of the different letters stands for a different number.
Consider all of the five digit numbers which we can form using only the digits 2, 4, 6 and 8. If these numbers are arranged in ascending order, what is the 512th number?
Choose four different digits from 1-9 and put one in each box so that the resulting four two-digit numbers add to a total of 100.
When the number x 1 x x x is multiplied by 417 this gives the answer 9 x x x 0 5 7. Find the missing digits, each of which is represented by an "x" .
This addition sum uses all ten digits 0, 1, 2...9 exactly once. Find the sum and show that the one you give is the only possibility.
Watch our videos of multiplication methods that you may not have met before. Can you make sense of them?
A game to be played against the computer, or in groups. Pick a 7-digit number. A random digit is generated. What must you subract to remove the digit from your number? the first to zero wins.
How many six digit numbers are there which DO NOT contain a 5?
A three digit number abc is always divisible by 7 when 2a+3b+c is divisible by 7. Why?