# Resources tagged with: Visualising

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### There are 178 results

Broad Topics > Thinking Mathematically > Visualising

### Triangular Tantaliser

##### Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:

Draw all the possible distinct triangles on a 4 x 4 dotty grid. Convince me that you have all possible triangles.

### Reflecting Squarely

##### Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:

In how many ways can you fit all three pieces together to make shapes with line symmetry?

### A Problem of Time

##### Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:

Consider a watch face which has identical hands and identical marks for the hours. It is opposite to a mirror. When is the time as read direct and in the mirror exactly the same between 6 and 7?

### Turning Triangles

##### Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:

A triangle ABC resting on a horizontal line is "rolled" along the line. Describe the paths of each of the vertices and the relationships between them and the original triangle.

### All Tied Up

##### Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:

A ribbon runs around a box so that it makes a complete loop with two parallel pieces of ribbon on the top. How long will the ribbon be?

### LOGO Challenge - Circles as Animals

##### Age 11 to 16 Challenge Level:

See if you can anticipate successive 'generations' of the two animals shown here.

### Tied Up

##### Age 14 to 16 Short Challenge Level:

How much of the field can the animals graze?

### Trice

##### Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:

ABCDEFGH is a 3 by 3 by 3 cube. Point P is 1/3 along AB (that is AP : PB = 1 : 2), point Q is 1/3 along GH and point R is 1/3 along ED. What is the area of the triangle PQR?

### Weighty Problem

##### Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:

The diagram shows a very heavy kitchen cabinet. It cannot be lifted but it can be pivoted around a corner. The task is to move it, without sliding, in a series of turns about the corners so that it. . . .

### Coke Machine

##### Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:

The coke machine in college takes 50 pence pieces. It also takes a certain foreign coin of traditional design...

##### Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:

How many different symmetrical shapes can you make by shading triangles or squares?

### Corridors

##### Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:

A 10x10x10 cube is made from 27 2x2 cubes with corridors between them. Find the shortest route from one corner to the opposite corner.

### Tetra Square

##### Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:

ABCD is a regular tetrahedron and the points P, Q, R and S are the midpoints of the edges AB, BD, CD and CA. Prove that PQRS is a square.

### The Old Goats

##### Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:

A rectangular field has two posts with a ring on top of each post. There are two quarrelsome goats and plenty of ropes which you can tie to their collars. How can you secure them so they can't. . . .

### Like a Circle in a Spiral

##### Age 7 to 16 Challenge Level:

A cheap and simple toy with lots of mathematics. Can you interpret the images that are produced? Can you predict the pattern that will be produced using different wheels?

### Sliced

##### Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:

An irregular tetrahedron has two opposite sides the same length a and the line joining their midpoints is perpendicular to these two edges and is of length b. What is the volume of the tetrahedron?

### On the Edge

##### Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:

If you move the tiles around, can you make squares with different coloured edges?

### Picture Story

##### Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:

Can you see how this picture illustrates the formula for the sum of the first six cube numbers?

### Natural Sum

##### Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:

The picture illustrates the sum 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = (4 x 5)/2. Prove the general formula for the sum of the first n natural numbers and the formula for the sum of the cubes of the first n natural. . . .

### Tessellating Hexagons

##### Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:

Which hexagons tessellate?

### Playground Snapshot

##### Age 7 to 14 Challenge Level:

The image in this problem is part of a piece of equipment found in the playground of a school. How would you describe it to someone over the phone?

### Concrete Wheel

##### Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:

A huge wheel is rolling past your window. What do you see?

### An Unusual Shape

##### Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:

Can you maximise the area available to a grazing goat?

### Coloured Edges

##### Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:

The whole set of tiles is used to make a square. This has a green and blue border. There are no green or blue tiles anywhere in the square except on this border. How many tiles are there in the set?

### Cube Paths

##### Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:

Given a 2 by 2 by 2 skeletal cube with one route `down' the cube. How many routes are there from A to B?

### Rolling Around

##### Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:

A circle rolls around the outside edge of a square so that its circumference always touches the edge of the square. Can you describe the locus of the centre of the circle?

### Rolling Triangle

##### Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:

The triangle ABC is equilateral. The arc AB has centre C, the arc BC has centre A and the arc CA has centre B. Explain how and why this shape can roll along between two parallel tracks.

### Khun Phaen Escapes to Freedom

##### Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:

Slide the pieces to move Khun Phaen past all the guards into the position on the right from which he can escape to freedom.

### A Tilted Square

##### Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:

The opposite vertices of a square have coordinates (a,b) and (c,d). What are the coordinates of the other vertices?

### Isosceles Triangles

##### Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:

Draw some isosceles triangles with an area of $9$cm$^2$ and a vertex at (20,20). If all the vertices must have whole number coordinates, how many is it possible to draw?

### Cutting a Cube

##### Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:

A half-cube is cut into two pieces by a plane through the long diagonal and at right angles to it. Can you draw a net of these pieces? Are they identical?

### Tilting Triangles

##### Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:

A right-angled isosceles triangle is rotated about the centre point of a square. What can you say about the area of the part of the square covered by the triangle as it rotates?

### Pattern Power

##### Age 5 to 14

Mathematics is the study of patterns. Studying pattern is an opportunity to observe, hypothesise, experiment, discover and create.

### Zooming in on the Squares

##### Age 7 to 14

Start with a large square, join the midpoints of its sides, you'll see four right angled triangles. Remove these triangles, a second square is left. Repeat the operation. What happens?

### Framed

##### Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:

Seven small rectangular pictures have one inch wide frames. The frames are removed and the pictures are fitted together like a jigsaw to make a rectangle of length 12 inches. Find the dimensions of. . . .

### Polygon Pictures

##### Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:

Can you work out how these polygon pictures were drawn, and use that to figure out their angles?

### Dotty Triangles

##### Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:

Imagine an infinitely large sheet of square dotty paper on which you can draw triangles of any size you wish (providing each vertex is on a dot). What areas is it/is it not possible to draw?

### Something in Common

##### Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:

A square of area 3 square units cannot be drawn on a 2D grid so that each of its vertices have integer coordinates, but can it be drawn on a 3D grid? Investigate squares that can be drawn.

##### Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:

Can you mark 4 points on a flat surface so that there are only two different distances between them?

### Constructing Triangles

##### Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:

Generate three random numbers to determine the side lengths of a triangle. What triangles can you draw?

### Just Opposite

##### Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:

A and C are the opposite vertices of a square ABCD, and have coordinates (a,b) and (c,d), respectively. What are the coordinates of the vertices B and D? What is the area of the square?

### Chess

##### Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:

What would be the smallest number of moves needed to move a Knight from a chess set from one corner to the opposite corner of a 99 by 99 square board?

### Dissect

##### Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:

What is the minimum number of squares a 13 by 13 square can be dissected into?

### Star Gazing

##### Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:

Find the ratio of the outer shaded area to the inner area for a six pointed star and an eight pointed star.

### Baravelle

##### Age 7 to 16 Challenge Level:

What can you see? What do you notice? What questions can you ask?

### Efficient Packing

##### Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:

How efficiently can you pack together disks?

### Eight Hidden Squares

##### Age 7 to 14 Challenge Level:

On the graph there are 28 marked points. These points all mark the vertices (corners) of eight hidden squares. Can you find the eight hidden squares?

### Screwed-up

##### Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:

A cylindrical helix is just a spiral on a cylinder, like an ordinary spring or the thread on a bolt. If I turn a left-handed helix over (top to bottom) does it become a right handed helix?

### Thinking Through, and By, Visualising

##### Age 7 to 16

This article is based on some of the ideas that emerged during the production of a book which takes visualising as its focus. We began to identify problems which helped us to take a structured view. . . .

### Counting Triangles

##### Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:

Triangles are formed by joining the vertices of a skeletal cube. How many different types of triangle are there? How many triangles altogether?