Resources tagged with Generalising similar to Fibs:
Other tags that relate to Fibs
Mathematical reasoning & proof. Generalising. Place value. Properties of numbers. Creating and manipulating expressions and formulae. Linear equations. Visualising. Diophantine equations. Fibonacci sequence. Curious.There are 123 results
Broad Topics > Using, Applying and Reasoning about Mathematics > Generalising
Mind Reading
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Think of a number, add one, double it, take away 3, add the number you first thought of, add 7, divide by 3 and take away the number you first thought of. You should now be left with 2. How do I. . . .
Regular Hexagon Loops
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Make some loops out of regular hexagons. What rules can you discover?
Mini-max
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Consider all two digit numbers (10, 11, . . . ,99). In writing down all these numbers, which digits occur least often, and which occur most often ? What about three digit numbers, four digit numbers. . . .
Partitioning Revisited
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
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
Repeaters
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
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.
Chocolate Maths
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Pick the number of times a week that you eat chocolate. This number must be more than one but less than ten. Multiply this number by 2. Add 5 (for Sunday). Multiply by 50... Can you explain why it. . . .
Summing Consecutive Numbers
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
15 = 7 + 8 and 10 = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4. Can you say which numbers can be expressed as the sum of two or more consecutive integers?
Mindreader
Age 11 to 14 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. . . .
Three Times Seven
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
A three digit number abc is always divisible by 7 when 2a+3b+c is divisible by 7. Why?
Magic Letters
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Charlie has made a Magic V. Can you use his example to make some more? And how about Magic Ls, Ns and Ws?
Picturing Square Numbers
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Square numbers can be represented as the sum of consecutive odd numbers. What is the sum of 1 + 3 + ..... + 149 + 151 + 153?
Pair Products
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
Choose four consecutive whole numbers. Multiply the first and last numbers together. Multiply the middle pair together. What do you notice?
Tourism
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
If you can copy a network without lifting your pen off the paper and without drawing any line twice, then it is traversable. Decide which of these diagrams are traversable.
Shear Magic
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
What are the areas of these triangles? What do you notice? Can you generalise to other "families" of triangles?
Go Forth and Generalise
Age 11 to 14
Spotting patterns can be an important first step - explaining why it is appropriate to generalise is the next step, and often the most interesting and important.
Frogs
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
How many moves does it take to swap over some red and blue frogs? Do you have a method?
Painted Cube
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
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?
Sum Equals Product
Age 11 to 14 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. . . .
Hidden Rectangles
Age 11 to 14 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?
Make 37
Age 7 to 14 Challenge Level:
Four bags contain a large number of 1s, 3s, 5s and 7s. Pick any ten numbers from the bags above so that their total is 37.
Pick's Theorem
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Polygons drawn on square dotty paper have dots on their perimeter (p) and often internal (i) ones as well. Find a relationship between p, i and the area of the polygons.
Enclosing Squares
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Can you find sets of sloping lines that enclose a square?
Special Sums and Products
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Find some examples of pairs of numbers such that their sum is a factor of their product. eg. 4 + 12 = 16 and 4 × 12 = 48 and 16 is a factor of 48.
Number Pyramids
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Try entering different sets of numbers in the number pyramids. How does the total at the top change?
Picturing Triangular Numbers
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Triangular numbers can be represented by a triangular array of squares. What do you notice about the sum of identical triangle numbers?
Partly Painted Cube
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
Jo made a cube from some smaller cubes, painted some of the faces of the large cube, and then took it apart again. 45 small cubes had no paint on them at all. How many small cubes did Jo use?
Christmas Chocolates
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
How could Penny, Tom and Matthew work out how many chocolates there are in different sized boxes?
Handshakes
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Can you find an efficient method to work out how many handshakes there would be if hundreds of people met?
How Much Can We Spend?
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
A country has decided to have just two different coins, 3z and 5z coins. Which totals can be made? Is there a largest total that cannot be made? How do you know?
What Numbers Can We Make?
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Imagine we have four bags containing a large number of 1s, 4s, 7s and 10s. What numbers can we make?
Multiplication Arithmagons
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
Can you find the values at the vertices when you know the values on the edges of these multiplication arithmagons?
What Numbers Can We Make Now?
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Imagine we have four bags containing numbers from a sequence. What numbers can we make now?
Route to Infinity
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Can you describe this route to infinity? Where will the arrows take you next?
Steps to the Podium
Age 7 to 14 Challenge Level:
It starts quite simple but great opportunities for number discoveries and patterns!
Egyptian Fractions
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
The Egyptians expressed all fractions as the sum of different unit fractions. Here is a chance to explore how they could have written different fractions.
Keep it Simple
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Can all unit fractions be written as the sum of two unit fractions?
Tower of Hanoi
Age 11 to 14 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.
Nim-interactive
Age 11 to 16 Challenge Level:
Start with any number of counters in any number of piles. 2 players take it in turns to remove any number of counters from a single pile. The winner is the player to take the last counter.
More Twisting and Turning
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
It would be nice to have a strategy for disentangling any tangled ropes...
More Number Pyramids
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
When number pyramids have a sequence on the bottom layer, some interesting patterns emerge...
Elevenses
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
How many pairs of numbers can you find that add up to a multiple of 11? Do you notice anything interesting about your results?
Searching for Mean(ing)
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Imagine you have a large supply of 3kg and 8kg weights. How many of each weight would you need for the average (mean) of the weights to be 6kg? What other averages could you have?
Cubes Within Cubes Revisited
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
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?
Nim
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
Start with any number of counters in any number of piles. 2 players take it in turns to remove any number of counters from a single pile. The loser is the player who takes the last counter.
Adding in Rows
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
List any 3 numbers. It is always possible to find a subset of adjacent numbers that add up to a multiple of 3. Can you explain why and prove it?
Window Frames
Age 5 to 14 Challenge Level:
This task encourages you to investigate the number of edging pieces and panes in different sized windows.
Dicing with Numbers
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
In how many ways can you arrange three dice side by side on a surface so that the sum of the numbers on each of the four faces (top, bottom, front and back) is equal?
Maths Trails
Age 7 to 14
The NRICH team are always looking for new ways to engage teachers and pupils in problem solving. Here we explain the thinking behind maths trails.
NRICH is part of the family of activities in the Millennium Mathematics Project.