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Multiplication & division. Investigations. Practical Activity. Factors and multiples. Visualising. Combinations. Addition & subtraction. Generalising. Working systematically. Interactivities.There are 151 results
Broad Topics > Using, Applying and Reasoning about Mathematics > Investigations
Two on Five
Age 5 to 11 Challenge Level:
Take 5 cubes of one colour and 2 of another colour. How many different ways can you join them if the 5 must touch the table and the 2 must not touch the table?
Room Doubling
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Investigate the different ways you could split up these rooms so that you have double the number.
Buying a Balloon
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Lolla bought a balloon at the circus. She gave the clown six coins to pay for it. What could Lolla have paid for the balloon?
Sweets in a Box
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
How many different shaped boxes can you design for 36 sweets in one layer? Can you arrange the sweets so that no sweets of the same colour are next to each other in any direction?
Birthday Cake Candles
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
This challenge involves calculating the number of candles needed on birthday cakes. It is an opportunity to explore numbers and discover new things.
Polo Square
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Arrange eight of the numbers between 1 and 9 in the Polo Square below so that each side adds to the same total.
Halloween Investigation
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Ana and Ross looked in a trunk in the attic. They found old cloaks and gowns, hats and masks. How many possible costumes could they make?
Ice Cream
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
You cannot choose a selection of ice cream flavours that includes totally what someone has already chosen. Have a go and find all the different ways in which seven children can have ice cream.
Watch Your Feet
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
I like to walk along the cracks of the paving stones, but not the outside edge of the path itself. How many different routes can you find for me to take?
Cubes Here and There
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
How many shapes can you build from three red and two green cubes? Can you use what you've found out to predict the number for four red and two green?
Street Party
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
The challenge here is to find as many routes as you can for a fence to go so that this town is divided up into two halves, each with 8 blocks.
It Figures
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Suppose we allow ourselves to use three numbers less than 10 and multiply them together. How many different products can you find? How do you know you've got them all?
Bean Bags for Bernard's Bag
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
How could you put eight beanbags in the hoops so that there are four in the blue hoop, five in the red and six in the yellow? Can you find all the ways of doing this?
Newspapers
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
When newspaper pages get separated at home we have to try to sort them out and get things in the correct order. How many ways can we arrange these pages so that the numbering may be different?
Calcunos
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
If we had 16 light bars which digital numbers could we make? How will you know you've found them all?
3 Rings
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
If you have three circular objects, you could arrange them so that they are separate, touching, overlapping or inside each other. Can you investigate all the different possibilities?
Homes
Age 5 to 7 Challenge Level:
There are to be 6 homes built on a new development site. They could be semi-detached, detached or terraced houses. How many different combinations of these can you find?
Crossing the Town Square
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
This tricky challenge asks you to find ways of going across rectangles, going through exactly ten squares.
Building with Rods
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
In how many ways can you stack these rods, following the rules?
Let's Investigate Triangles
Age 5 to 7 Challenge Level:
Vincent and Tara are making triangles with the class construction set. They have a pile of strips of different lengths. How many different triangles can they make?
Round and Round the Circle
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
What happens if you join every second point on this circle? How about every third point? Try with different steps and see if you can predict what will happen.
The Pied Piper of Hamelin
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
This problem is based on the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Investigate the different numbers of people and rats there could have been if you know how many legs there are altogether!
Pebbles
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Place four pebbles on the sand in the form of a square. Keep adding as few pebbles as necessary to double the area. How many extra pebbles are added each time?
Magic Constants
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
In a Magic Square all the rows, columns and diagonals add to the 'Magic Constant'. How would you change the magic constant of this square?
Making Cuboids
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Let's say you can only use two different lengths - 2 units and 4 units. Using just these 2 lengths as the edges how many different cuboids can you make?
It's All about 64
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Write the numbers up to 64 in an interesting way so that the shape they make at the end is interesting, different, more exciting ... than just a square.
Stairs
Age 5 to 11 Challenge Level:
This challenge is to design different step arrangements, which must go along a distance of 6 on the steps and must end up at 6 high.
My New Patio
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
What is the smallest number of tiles needed to tile this patio? Can you investigate patios of different sizes?
New House
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
In this investigation, you must try to make houses using cubes. If the base must not spill over 4 squares and you have 7 cubes which stand for 7 rooms, what different designs can you come up with?
Sticky Triangles
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Can you continue this pattern of triangles and begin to predict how many sticks are used for each new "layer"?
Cuboid-in-a-box
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
What is the smallest cuboid that you can put in this box so that you cannot fit another that's the same into it?
Tiling
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
An investigation that gives you the opportunity to make and justify predictions.
Abundant Numbers
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
48 is called an abundant number because it is less than the sum of its factors (without itself). Can you find some more abundant numbers?
Hexpentas
Age 5 to 11 Challenge Level:
How many different ways can you find of fitting five hexagons together? How will you know you have found all the ways?
28 and It's Upward and Onward
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Can you find ways of joining cubes together so that 28 faces are visible?
Sticks and Triangles
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Using different numbers of sticks, how many different triangles are you able to make? Can you make any rules about the numbers of sticks that make the most triangles?
Follow the Numbers
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
What happens when you add the digits of a number then multiply the result by 2 and you keep doing this? You could try for different numbers and different rules.
Gran, How Old Are You?
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
When Charlie asked his grandmother how old she is, he didn't get a straightforward reply! Can you work out how old she is?
Ip Dip
Age 5 to 11 Challenge Level:
"Ip dip sky blue! Who's 'it'? It's you!" Where would you position yourself so that you are 'it' if there are two players? Three players ...?
Triple Cubes
Age 5 to 11 Challenge Level:
This challenge involves eight three-cube models made from interlocking cubes. Investigate different ways of putting the models together then compare your constructions.
Three Sets of Cubes, Two Surfaces
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
How many models can you find which obey these rules?
Polygonals
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Polygonal numbers are those that are arranged in shapes as they enlarge. Explore the polygonal numbers drawn here.
Move a Match
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
How can you arrange these 10 matches in four piles so that when you move one match from three of the piles into the fourth, you end up with the same arrangement?
Division Rules
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
This challenge encourages you to explore dividing a three-digit number by a single-digit number.
Tiles on a Patio
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
How many ways can you find of tiling the square patio, using square tiles of different sizes?
Magazines
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Let's suppose that you are going to have a magazine which has 16 pages of A5 size. Can you find some different ways to make these pages? Investigate the pattern for each if you number the pages.
Train Carriages
Age 5 to 11 Challenge Level:
Suppose there is a train with 24 carriages which are going to be put together to make up some new trains. Can you find all the ways that this can be done?
Egyptian Rope
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
The ancient Egyptians were said to make right-angled triangles using a rope with twelve equal sections divided by knots. What other triangles could you make if you had a rope like this?
Plants
Age 5 to 11 Challenge Level:
Three children are going to buy some plants for their birthdays. They will plant them within circular paths. How could they do this?
NRICH is part of the family of activities in the Millennium Mathematics Project.