There are 106 NRICH Mathematical resources connected to Regular polygons and circles, you may find related items under Angles, Polygons, and Geometrical Proof.
Broad Topics > Angles, Polygons, and Geometrical Proof > Regular polygons and circles
Olympic Rings
Age 5 to 7 Challenge Level:
This problem is intended to get children to look really hard at something they will see many times in the next few months.
Shaping It
Age 5 to 11 Challenge Level:
These pictures were made by starting with a square, finding the half-way point on each side and joining those points up. You could investigate your own starting shape.
Curvy Areas
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
Have a go at creating these images based on circles. What do you notice about the areas of the different sections?
Partly Circles
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
What is the same and what is different about these circle questions? What connections can you make?
Overlapping Again
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
What shape is the overlap when you slide one of these shapes half way across another? Can you picture it in your head? Use the interactivity to check your visualisation.
2 Rings
Age 5 to 7 Challenge Level:
The red ring is inside the blue ring in this picture. Can you rearrange the rings in different ways? Perhaps you can overlap them or put one outside another?
Spokes
Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:
Draw three equal line segments in a unit circle to divide the circle into four parts of equal area.
Salinon
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
This shape comprises four semi-circles. What is the relationship between the area of the shaded region and the area of the circle on AB as diameter?
What Shape and Colour?
Age 5 to 7 Challenge Level:
Can you fill in the empty boxes in the grid with the right shape and colour?
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?
Semi-detached
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
A square of area 40 square cms is inscribed in a semicircle. Find the area of the square that could be inscribed in a circle of the same radius.
Where Are They?
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Use the isometric grid paper to find the different polygons.
Shapes on the Playground
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Sally and Ben were drawing shapes in chalk on the school playground. Can you work out what shapes each of them drew using the clues?
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?
Approximating Pi
Age 14 to 18 Challenge Level:
By inscribing a circle in a square and then a square in a circle find an approximation to pi. By using a hexagon, can you improve on the approximation?
Hex
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Explain how the thirteen pieces making up the regular hexagon shown in the diagram can be re-assembled to form three smaller regular hexagons congruent to each other.
Quadarc
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
Given a square ABCD of sides 10 cm, and using the corners as centres, construct four quadrants with radius 10 cm each inside the square. The four arcs intersect at P, Q, R and S. Find the. . . .
Orthogonal Circle
Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:
Given any three non intersecting circles in the plane find another circle or straight line which cuts all three circles orthogonally.
So Big
Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:
One side of a triangle is divided into segments of length a and b by the inscribed circle, with radius r. Prove that the area is: abr(a+b)/ab-r^2
Logosquares
Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:
Ten squares form regular rings either with adjacent or opposite vertices touching. Calculate the inner and outer radii of the rings that surround the squares.
Circles Ad Infinitum
Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:
A circle is inscribed in an equilateral triangle. Smaller circles touch it and the sides of the triangle, the process continuing indefinitely. What is the sum of the areas of all the circles?
Baby Circle
Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:
A small circle fits between two touching circles so that all three circles touch each other and have a common tangent? What is the exact radius of the smallest circle?
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.
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?
Bracelets
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Investigate the different shaped bracelets you could make from 18 different spherical beads. How do they compare if you use 24 beads?
Circular Area
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
How could you find out the area of a circle? Take a look at these ways.
Shogi Shapes
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Shogi tiles can form interesting shapes and patterns... I wonder whether they fit together to make a ring?
Gibraltar Geometry
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Take a look at the photos of tiles at a school in Gibraltar. What questions can you ask about them?
Flip Your Mat!
Age 7 to 14 Challenge Level:
What shape and size of drinks mat is best for flipping and catching?
A Rational Search
Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:
Investigate constructible images which contain rational areas.
Sports Equipment
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
If these balls are put on a line with each ball touching the one in front and the one behind, which arrangement makes the shortest line of balls?
Ford Circles
Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:
Can you find the link between these beautiful circle patterns and Farey Sequences?
Bicentric Quadrilaterals
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
Investigate the properties of quadrilaterals which can be drawn with a circle just touching each side and another circle just touching each vertex.
Tessellation Interactivity
Age 7 to 16 Challenge Level:
An environment that enables you to investigate tessellations of regular polygons
Shaping Up
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Are all the possible combinations of two shapes included in this set of 27 cards? How do you know?
Two Regular Polygons
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
Two polygons fit together so that the exterior angle at each end of their shared side is 81 degrees. If both shapes now have to be regular could the angle still be 81 degrees?
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?
Spirostars
Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:
A spiropath is a sequence of connected line segments end to end taking different directions. The same spiropath is iterated. When does it cycle and when does it go on indefinitely?
Triangular Hexagons
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Investigate these hexagons drawn from different sized equilateral triangles.
LOGO Challenge 12 - Concentric Circles
Age 11 to 16 Challenge Level:
Can you reproduce the design comprising a series of concentric circles? Test your understanding of the realtionship betwwn the circumference and diameter of a circle.
LOGO Challenge 11 - More on Circles
Age 11 to 16 Challenge Level:
Thinking of circles as polygons with an infinite number of sides - but how does this help us with our understanding of the circumference of circle as pi x d? This challenge investigates. . . .
Gold Yet Again
Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:
Nick Lord says "This problem encapsulates for me the best features of the NRICH collection."
First Forward Into Logo 4: Circles
Age 7 to 16 Challenge Level:
Learn how to draw circles using Logo. Wait a minute! Are they really circles? If not what are they?
First Forward Into Logo 2: Polygons
Age 7 to 16 Challenge Level:
This is the second in a twelve part introduction to Logo for beginners. In this part you learn to draw polygons.
Circle Panes
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Look at the mathematics that is all around us - this circular window is a wonderful example.
Yin Yang
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Can you reproduce the Yin Yang symbol using a pair of compasses?
Pegboard Quads
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
Make five different quadrilaterals on a nine-point pegboard, without using the centre peg. Work out the angles in each quadrilateral you make. Now, what other relationships you can see?
Circles, Circles Everywhere
Age 7 to 14
This article for pupils gives some examples of how circles have featured in people's lives for centuries.
