Other tags that relate to Button-up
Practical Activity. Factors and multiples. Multiplication & division. Combinations. Addition & subtraction. Visualising. Working systematically. Generalising. Trial and improvement. Investigations.There are 106 results
Broad Topics > Decision Mathematics and Combinatorics > Combinations
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?
The School Trip
Age 5 to 7 Challenge Level:
Lorenzie was packing his bag for a school trip. He packed four shirts and three pairs of pants. "I will be able to have a different outfit each day", he said. How many days will Lorenzie be away?
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.
Jumping Cricket
Age 5 to 7 Challenge Level:
El Crico the cricket has to cross a square patio to get home. He can jump the length of one tile, two tiles and three tiles. Can you find a path that would get El Crico home in three jumps?
Mixed-up Socks
Age 5 to 7 Challenge Level:
Start with three pairs of socks. Now mix them up so that no mismatched pair is the same as another mismatched pair. Is there more than one way to do it?
Calendar Cubes
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Make a pair of cubes that can be moved to show all the days of the month from the 1st to the 31st.
Elf Suits
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
If these elves wear a different outfit every day for as many days as possible, how many days can their fun last?
Briefcase Lock
Age 5 to 7 Challenge Level:
My briefcase has a three-number combination lock, but I have forgotten the combination. I remember that there's a 3, a 5 and an 8. How many possible combinations are there to try?
Home City
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Use the clues to work out which cities Mohamed, Sheng, Tanya and Bharat live in.
Ladybirds in the Garden
Age 5 to 7 Challenge Level:
In Sam and Jill's garden there are two sorts of ladybirds with 7 spots or 4 spots. What numbers of total spots can you make?
Team Scream
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Seven friends went to a fun fair with lots of scary rides. They decided to pair up for rides until each friend had ridden once with each of the others. What was the total number rides?
Button-up
Age 5 to 7 Challenge Level:
My coat has three buttons. How many ways can you find to do up all the buttons?
Red Express Train
Age 5 to 7 Challenge Level:
The Red Express Train usually has five red carriages. How many ways can you find to add two blue carriages?
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?
Mrs Beeswax
Age 5 to 7 Challenge Level:
In how many ways could Mrs Beeswax put ten coins into her three puddings so that each pudding ended up with at least two coins?
Two Dice
Age 5 to 7 Challenge Level:
Find all the numbers that can be made by adding the dots on two dice.
Robot Monsters
Age 5 to 7 Challenge Level:
Use these head, body and leg pieces to make Robot Monsters which are different heights.
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.
Button-up Some More
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
How many ways can you find to do up all four buttons on my coat? How about if I had five buttons? Six ...?
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.
Six Is the Sum
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
What do the digits in the number fifteen add up to? How many other numbers have digits with the same total but no zeros?
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?
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?
Nineteen Hexagons
Age 5 to 7 Challenge Level:
In this maze of hexagons, you start in the centre at 0. The next hexagon must be a multiple of 2 and the next a multiple of 5. What are the possible paths you could take?
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?
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?
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?
Chocs, Mints, Jellies
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
In a bowl there are 4 Chocolates, 3 Jellies and 5 Mints. Find a way to share the sweets between the three children so they each get the kind they like. Is there more than one way to do it?
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?
Two Egg Timers
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
You have two egg timers. One takes 4 minutes exactly to empty and the other takes 7 minutes. What times in whole minutes can you measure and how?
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?
Finding Fifteen
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Tim had nine cards each with a different number from 1 to 9 on it. How could he have put them into three piles so that the total in each pile was 15?
Dice and Spinner Numbers
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
If you had any number of ordinary dice, what are the possible ways of making their totals 6? What would the product of the dice be each time?
Three by Three
Age 5 to 11 Challenge Level:
Arrange 3 red, 3 blue and 3 yellow counters into a three-by-three square grid, so that there is only one of each colour in every row and every column
Wag Worms
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
When intergalactic Wag Worms are born they look just like a cube. Each year they grow another cube in any direction. Find all the shapes that five-year-old Wag Worms can be.
Prison Cells
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
There are 78 prisoners in a square cell block of twelve cells. The clever prison warder arranged them so there were 25 along each wall of the prison block. How did he do it?
On Target
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
You have 5 darts and your target score is 44. How many different ways could you score 44?
Hubble, Bubble
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Winifred Wytsh bought a box each of jelly babies, milk jelly bears, yellow jelly bees and jelly belly beans. In how many different ways could she make a jolly jelly feast with 32 legs?
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.
Four-triangle Arrangements
Age 5 to 7 Challenge Level:
How many different shapes can you make by putting four right- angled isosceles triangles together?
3 Blocks Towers
Age 5 to 7 Challenge Level:
Take three differently coloured blocks - maybe red, yellow and blue. Make a tower using one of each colour. How many different towers can you make?
Sealed Solution
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Ten cards are put into five envelopes so that there are two cards in each envelope. The sum of the numbers inside it is written on each envelope. What numbers could be inside the envelopes?
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?
More and More Buckets
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
In this challenge, buckets come in five different sizes. If you choose some buckets, can you investigate the different ways in which they can be filled?
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?
Here to There 1 2 3
Age 5 to 7 Challenge Level:
Move from the START to the FINISH by moving across or down to the next square. Can you find a route to make these totals?
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?
Octa Space
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
In the planet system of Octa the planets are arranged in the shape of an octahedron. How many different routes could be taken to get from Planet A to Planet Zargon?
NRICH is part of the family of activities in the Millennium Mathematics Project.