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#### Resources tagged with Mathematical reasoning & proof similar to Eyes Down:

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### There are 174 results

Broad Topics > Using, Applying and Reasoning about Mathematics > Mathematical reasoning & proof

### Iffy Logic

##### Age 14 to 18 Challenge Level:

Can you rearrange the cards to make a series of correct mathematical statements?

### How Many Solutions?

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

Find all the solutions to the this equation.

### Sperner's Lemma

##### Age 16 to 18

An article about the strategy for playing The Triangle Game which appears on the NRICH site. It contains a simple lemma about labelling a grid of equilateral triangles within a triangular frame.

### The Clue Is in the Question

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

Starting with one of the mini-challenges, how many of the other mini-challenges will you invent for yourself?

### Dodgy Proofs

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

These proofs are wrong. Can you see why?

### Our Ages

##### Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:

I am exactly n times my daughter's age. In m years I shall be ... How old am I?

### More Number Sandwiches

##### Age 11 to 16 Challenge Level:

When is it impossible to make number sandwiches?

### Proof of Pick's Theorem

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

Follow the hints and prove Pick's Theorem.

### Unit Interval

##### Age 14 to 18 Challenge Level:

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

### Sums of Squares and Sums of Cubes

##### Age 16 to 18

An account of methods for finding whether or not a number can be written as the sum of two or more squares or as the sum of two or more cubes.

### To Prove or Not to Prove

##### Age 14 to 18

A serious but easily readable discussion of proof in mathematics with some amusing stories and some interesting examples.

### The Great Weights Puzzle

##### Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:

You have twelve weights, one of which is different from the rest. Using just 3 weighings, can you identify which weight is the odd one out, and whether it is heavier or lighter than the rest?

### Impossible Triangles?

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

Which of these triangular jigsaws are impossible to finish?

### Sprouts Explained

##### Age 7 to 18

This article invites you to get familiar with a strategic game called "sprouts". The game is simple enough for younger children to understand, and has also provided experienced mathematicians with. . . .

### The Root Cause

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

Prove that if a is a natural number and the square root of a is rational, then it is a square number (an integer n^2 for some integer n.)

### Exhaustion

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

Find the positive integer solutions of the equation (1+1/a)(1+1/b)(1+1/c) = 2

### Water Pistols

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

With n people anywhere in a field each shoots a water pistol at the nearest person. In general who gets wet? What difference does it make if n is odd or even?

### Perfectly Square

##### Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:

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

### Cosines Rule

##### Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:

Three points A, B and C lie in this order on a line, and P is any point in the plane. Use the Cosine Rule to prove the following statement.

### Pythagorean Triples I

##### Age 11 to 16

The first of two articles on Pythagorean Triples which asks how many right angled triangles can you find with the lengths of each side exactly a whole number measurement. Try it!

### Pythagorean Triples II

##### Age 11 to 16

This is the second article on right-angled triangles whose edge lengths are whole numbers.

### Square Mean

##### Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:

Is the mean of the squares of two numbers greater than, or less than, the square of their means?

### Contrary Logic

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

Can you invert the logic to prove these statements?

### Three Ways

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

If x + y = -1 find the largest value of xy by coordinate geometry, by calculus and by algebra.

### A Biggy

##### Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:

Find the smallest positive integer N such that N/2 is a perfect cube, N/3 is a perfect fifth power and N/5 is a perfect seventh power.

### Big, Bigger, Biggest

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

Which is the biggest and which the smallest of $2000^{2002}, 2001^{2001} \text{and } 2002^{2000}$?

### Always Perfect

##### Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:

Show that if you add 1 to the product of four consecutive numbers the answer is ALWAYS a perfect square.

### Euclid's Algorithm II

##### Age 16 to 18

We continue the discussion given in Euclid's Algorithm I, and here we shall discover when an equation of the form ax+by=c has no solutions, and when it has infinitely many solutions.

### Continued Fractions II

##### Age 16 to 18

In this article we show that every whole number can be written as a continued fraction of the form k/(1+k/(1+k/...)).

### Modulus Arithmetic and a Solution to Dirisibly Yours

##### Age 16 to 18

Peter Zimmerman from Mill Hill County High School in Barnet, London gives a neat proof that: 5^(2n+1) + 11^(2n+1) + 17^(2n+1) is divisible by 33 for every non negative integer n.

### More Sums of Squares

##### Age 16 to 18

Tom writes about expressing numbers as the sums of three squares.

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

Find all real solutions of the equation (x^2-7x+11)^(x^2-11x+30) = 1.

### Some Circuits in Graph or Network Theory

##### Age 14 to 18

Eulerian and Hamiltonian circuits are defined with some simple examples and a couple of puzzles to illustrate Hamiltonian circuits.

### Where Do We Get Our Feet Wet?

##### Age 16 to 18

Professor Korner has generously supported school mathematics for more than 30 years and has been a good friend to NRICH since it started.

### Euler's Squares

##### Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:

Euler found four whole numbers such that the sum of any two of the numbers is a perfect square...

### Tetra Inequalities

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

Prove that in every tetrahedron there is a vertex such that the three edges meeting there have lengths which could be the sides of a triangle.

### Interpolating Polynomials

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

Given a set of points (x,y) with distinct x values, find a polynomial that goes through all of them, then prove some results about the existence and uniqueness of these polynomials.

### Advent Calendar 2011 - Secondary

##### Age 11 to 18 Challenge Level:

Advent Calendar 2011 - a mathematical activity for each day during the run-up to Christmas.

### Converse

##### Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:

Clearly if a, b and c are the lengths of the sides of an equilateral triangle then a^2 + b^2 + c^2 = ab + bc + ca. Is the converse true?

### No Right Angle Here

##### Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:

Prove that the internal angle bisectors of a triangle will never be perpendicular to each other.

### Diophantine N-tuples

##### Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:

Can you explain why a sequence of operations always gives you perfect squares?

### An Introduction to Number Theory

##### Age 16 to 18

An introduction to some beautiful results of Number Theory

### Never Prime

##### Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:

If a two digit number has its digits reversed and the smaller of the two numbers is subtracted from the larger, prove the difference can never be prime.

### Without Calculus

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

Given that u>0 and v>0 find the smallest possible value of 1/u + 1/v given that u + v = 5 by different methods.

##### Age 16 to 18 Short Challenge Level:

Can you work out where the blue-and-red brick roads end?

### Notty Logic

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

Have a go at being mathematically negative, by negating these statements.

### Rational Roots

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

Given that a, b and c are natural numbers show that if sqrt a+sqrt b is rational then it is a natural number. Extend this to 3 variables.

### Proximity

##### Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:

We are given a regular icosahedron having three red vertices. Show that it has a vertex that has at least two red neighbours.

### Particularly General

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

By proving these particular identities, prove the existence of general cases.

### Modulus Arithmetic and a Solution to Differences

##### Age 16 to 18

Peter Zimmerman, a Year 13 student at Mill Hill County High School in Barnet, London wrote this account of modulus arithmetic.