Resources tagged with Generalising similar to Mindreader:
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Mathematical reasoning & proof. Creating and manipulating expressions and formulae. Visualising. Place value. Patterned numbers. Factors and multiples. Generalising. Games. Interactivities. Curious.There are 123 results
Broad Topics > Using, Applying and Reasoning about Mathematics > Generalising
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. . . .
Regular Hexagon Loops
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Make some loops out of regular hexagons. What rules can you discover?
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. . . .
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. . . .
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?
Great Granddad
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Great Granddad is very proud of his telegram from the Queen congratulating him on his hundredth birthday and he has friends who are even older than he is... When was he born?
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. . . .
Enclosing Squares
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Can you find sets of sloping lines that enclose a square?
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?
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.
More Number Pyramids
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
When number pyramids have a sequence on the bottom layer, some interesting patterns emerge...
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.
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
Triangle Numbers
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Take a look at the multiplication square. The first eleven triangle numbers have been identified. Can you see a pattern? Does the pattern continue?
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.
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?
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.
One O Five
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
You can work out the number someone else is thinking of as follows. Ask a friend to think of any natural number less than 100. Then ask them to tell you the remainders when this number is divided by. . . .
Keep it Simple
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Can all unit fractions be written as the sum of two unit fractions?
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?
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?
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.
Who Is the Fairest of Them All ?
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Explore the effect of combining enlargements.
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. . . .
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?
Nim-7 for Two
Age 5 to 14 Challenge Level:
Nim-7 game for an adult and child. Who will be the one to take the last counter?
...on the Wall
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Explore the effect of reflecting in two intersecting mirror lines.
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?
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?
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?
Steps to the Podium
Age 7 to 14 Challenge Level:
It starts quite simple but great opportunities for number discoveries and patterns!
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?
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?
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.
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.
More Magic Potting Sheds
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
The number of plants in Mr McGregor's magic potting shed increases overnight. He'd like to put the same number of plants in each of his gardens, planting one garden each day. How can he do it?
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.
Have You Got It?
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Can you explain the strategy for winning this game with any target?
Nim-7
Age 5 to 14 Challenge Level:
Can you work out how to win this game of Nim? Does it matter if you go first or second?
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?
Winning Lines
Age 7 to 16
An article for teachers and pupils that encourages you to look at the mathematical properties of similar games.
2001 Spatial Oddity
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
With one cut a piece of card 16 cm by 9 cm can be made into two pieces which can be rearranged to form a square 12 cm by 12 cm. Explain how this can be done.
Overlap
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
A red square and a blue square overlap so that the corner of the red square rests on the centre of the blue square. Show that, whatever the orientation of the red square, it covers a quarter of the. . . .
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?
Pentanim
Age 7 to 16 Challenge Level:
A game for 2 players with similarities to NIM. Place one counter on each spot on the games board. Players take it is turns to remove 1 or 2 adjacent counters. The winner picks up the last counter.
Konigsberg Plus
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Euler discussed whether or not it was possible to stroll around Koenigsberg crossing each of its seven bridges exactly once. Experiment with different numbers of islands and bridges.
Got It
Age 7 to 14 Challenge Level:
A game for two people, or play online. Given a target number, say 23, and a range of numbers to choose from, say 1-4, players take it in turns to add to the running total to hit their target.
Jam
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
To avoid losing think of another very well known game where the patterns of play are similar.
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.
Got it for Two
Age 7 to 14 Challenge Level:
Got It game for an adult and child. How can you play so that you know you will always win?
NRICH is part of the family of activities in the Millennium Mathematics Project.