Other tags that relate to Dicey Directions
Working systematically. Addition & subtraction. Interactivities. Cubes & cuboids. Creating and manipulating expressions and formulae. Visualising. Generalising. Games. Mathematical reasoning & proof. Selecting and using information.There are 180 results
Broad Topics > Thinking Mathematically > Visualising
One Out One Under
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
Imagine a stack of numbered cards with one on top. Discard the top, put the next card to the bottom and repeat continuously. Can you predict the last card?
Changing Places
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
Place a red counter in the top left corner of a 4x4 array, which is covered by 14 other smaller counters, leaving a gap in the bottom right hand corner (HOME). What is the smallest number of moves. . . .
Clocked
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Is it possible to rearrange the numbers 1,2......12 around a clock face in such a way that every two numbers in adjacent positions differ by any of 3, 4 or 5 hours?
Sliding Puzzle
Age 11 to 16 Challenge Level:
The aim of the game is to slide the green square from the top right hand corner to the bottom left hand corner in the least number of moves.
Square It
Age 11 to 16 Challenge Level:
Players take it in turns to choose a dot on the grid. The winner is the first to have four dots that can be joined to form a square.
Wari
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
This is a simple version of an ancient game played all over the world. It is also called Mancala. What tactics will increase your chances of winning?
Cogs
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
A and B are two interlocking cogwheels having p teeth and q teeth respectively. One tooth on B is painted red. Find the values of p and q for which the red tooth on B contacts every gap on the. . . .
Tetrahedra Tester
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
An irregular tetrahedron is composed of four different triangles. Can such a tetrahedron be constructed where the side lengths are 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 units of length?
Triangles to Tetrahedra
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Imagine you have an unlimited number of four types of triangle. How many different tetrahedra can you make?
Inside Out
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
There are 27 small cubes in a 3 x 3 x 3 cube, 54 faces being visible at any one time. Is it possible to reorganise these cubes so that by dipping the large cube into a pot of paint three times you. . . .
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?
Cubes Within Cubes
Age 7 to 14 Challenge Level:
We start with one yellow cube and build around it to make a 3x3x3 cube with red cubes. Then we build around that red cube with blue cubes and so on. How many cubes of each colour have we used?
Fermat's Poser
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
Find the point whose sum of distances from the vertices (corners) of a given triangle is a minimum.
Jam
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
To avoid losing think of another very well known game where the patterns of play are similar.
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.
Dice, Routes and Pathways
Age 5 to 14
This article for teachers discusses examples of problems in which there is no obvious method but in which children can be encouraged to think deeply about the context and extend their ability to. . . .
On the Edge
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
If you move the tiles around, can you make squares with different coloured edges?
Convex Polygons
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Show that among the interior angles of a convex polygon there cannot be more than three acute angles.
Pattern Power
Age 5 to 14
Mathematics is the study of patterns. Studying pattern is an opportunity to observe, hypothesise, experiment, discover and create.
Hypotenuse Lattice Points
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
The triangle OMN has vertices on the axes with whole number co-ordinates. How many points with whole number coordinates are there on the hypotenuse MN?
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?
Frogs
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
How many moves does it take to swap over some red and blue frogs? Do you have a method?
Icosian Game
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
This problem is about investigating whether it is possible to start at one vertex of a platonic solid and visit every other vertex once only returning to the vertex you started at.
Shady Symmetry
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
How many different symmetrical shapes can you make by shading triangles or squares?
Flight of the Flibbins
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Blue Flibbins are so jealous of their red partners that they will not leave them on their own with any other bue Flibbin. What is the quickest way of getting the five pairs of Flibbins safely to. . . .
Painted Cube
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
Imagine a large cube made from small red cubes being dropped into a pot of yellow paint. How many of the small cubes will have yellow paint on their faces?
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?
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?
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. . . .
Nine Colours
Age 11 to 16 Challenge Level:
Can you use small coloured cubes to make a 3 by 3 by 3 cube so that each face of the bigger cube contains one of each colour?
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?
John's Train Is on Time
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
A train leaves on time. After it has gone 8 miles (at 33mph) the driver looks at his watch and sees that the hour hand is exactly over the minute hand. When did the train leave the station?
Take Ten
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Is it possible to remove ten unit cubes from a 3 by 3 by 3 cube so that the surface area of the remaining solid is the same as the surface area of the original?
Rati-o
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Points P, Q, R and S each divide the sides AB, BC, CD and DA respectively in the ratio of 2 : 1. Join the points. What is the area of the parallelogram PQRS in relation to the original rectangle?
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?
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?
The Farmers' Field Boundary
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
The farmers want to redraw their field boundary but keep the area the same. Can you advise them?
Seven Squares
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Watch these videos to see how Phoebe, Alice and Luke chose to draw 7 squares. How would they draw 100?
Steel Cables
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
Some students have been working out the number of strands needed for different sizes of cable. Can you make sense of their solutions?
3D Stacks
Age 7 to 14 Challenge Level:
Can you find a way of representing these arrangements of balls?
Auditorium Steps
Age 7 to 14 Challenge Level:
What is the shape of wrapping paper that you would need to completely wrap this model?
Troublesome Dice
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
When dice land edge-up, we usually roll again. But what if we didn't...?
Diminishing Returns
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
How much of the square is coloured blue? How will the pattern continue?
Partly Painted Cube
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
Jo made a cube from some smaller cubes, painted some of the faces of the large cube, and then took it apart again. 45 small cubes had no paint on them at all. How many small cubes did Jo use?
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?
Mystic Rose
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
Use the animation to help you work out how many lines are needed to draw mystic roses of different sizes.
Summing Squares
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
Discover a way to sum square numbers by building cuboids from small cubes. Can you picture how the sequence will grow?
Cuboid Challenge
Age 11 to 16 Challenge Level:
What's the largest volume of box you can make from a square of paper?
NRICH is part of the family of activities in the Millennium Mathematics Project.