Other tags that relate to Mystery Matrix
Working systematically. Addition & subtraction. PrimaryResourceful. Multiplication & division. Investigations. Factors and multiples. Visualising. Generalising. Interactivities. Combinations.There are 145 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?
Tiling
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
An investigation that gives you the opportunity to make and justify predictions.
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?
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?
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.
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?
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?
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?
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?
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?
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.
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?
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.
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?
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.
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?
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?
Teddy Town
Age 5 to 14 Challenge Level:
There are nine teddies in Teddy Town - three red, three blue and three yellow. There are also nine houses, three of each colour. Can you put them on the map of Teddy Town according to the rules?
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!
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.
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.
Doplication
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
We can arrange dots in a similar way to the 5 on a dice and they usually sit quite well into a rectangular shape. How many altogether in this 3 by 5? What happens for other sizes?
Division Rules
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
This challenge encourages you to explore dividing a three-digit number by a single-digit number.
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.
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?
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?
Worms
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Place this "worm" on the 100 square and find the total of the four squares it covers. Keeping its head in the same place, what other totals can you make?
Building with Rods
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
In how many ways can you stack these rods, following the rules?
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.
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?
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?
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?
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.
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.
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?
The Great Tiling Count
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Compare the numbers of particular tiles in one or all of these three designs, inspired by the floor tiles of a church in Cambridge.
Number Squares
Age 5 to 11 Challenge Level:
Start with four numbers at the corners of a square and put the total of two corners in the middle of that side. Keep going... Can you estimate what the size of the last four numbers will be?
Counting on Letters
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
The letters of the word ABACUS have been arranged in the shape of a triangle. How many different ways can you find to read the word ABACUS from this triangular pattern?
Sending Cards
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
This challenge asks you to investigate the total number of cards that would be sent if four children send one to all three others. How many would be sent if there were five children? Six?
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?
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"?
Balance of Halves
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Investigate this balance which is marked in halves. If you had a weight on the left-hand 7, where could you hang two weights on the right to make it balance?
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?
Street Sequences
Age 5 to 11 Challenge Level:
Investigate what happens when you add house numbers along a street in different ways.
Alien Counting
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
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.
Sets of Numbers
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
How many different sets of numbers with at least four members can you find in the numbers in this box?
Month Mania
Age 5 to 11 Challenge Level:
Can you design a new shape for the twenty-eight squares and arrange the numbers in a logical way? What patterns do you notice?
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 ...?
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?
NRICH is part of the family of activities in the Millennium Mathematics Project.