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Are these statements always true, sometimes true or never true?
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.
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.
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?
Use the isometric grid paper to find the different polygons.
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?
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?
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.
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.
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?
Investigate the different shaped bracelets you could make from 18 different spherical beads. How do they compare if you use 24 beads?
How could you find out the area of a circle? Take a look at these ways.
Shogi tiles can form interesting shapes and patterns... I wonder whether they fit together to make a ring?
Take a look at the photos of tiles at a school in Gibraltar. What questions can you ask about them?
Never used GeoGebra before? This article for complete beginners will help you to get started with this free dynamic geometry software.
What shape and size of drinks mat is best for flipping and catching?
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?
An environment that enables you to investigate tessellations of regular polygons
Are all the possible combinations of two shapes included in this set of 27 cards? How do you know?
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?
Investigate these hexagons drawn from different sized equilateral triangles.
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.
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 this relationship.
Learn how to draw circles using Logo. Wait a minute! Are they really circles? If not what are they?
This is the second in a twelve part introduction to Logo for beginners. In this part you learn to draw polygons.
Look at the mathematics that is all around us - this circular window is a wonderful example.
Can you reproduce the Yin Yang symbol using a pair of compasses?
This article for pupils gives some examples of how circles have featured in people's lives for centuries.
Read all about the number pi and the mathematicians who have tried to find out its value as accurately as possible.
Make an estimate of how many light fittings you can see. Was your estimate a good one? How can you decide?
What shaped overlaps can you make with two circles which are the same size?
Use the interactivity to make this Islamic star and cross design. Can you produce a tessellation of regular octagons with two different types of triangle?
Remember that you want someone following behind you to see where you went. Can yo work out how these patterns were created and recreate them?
This LOGO challenge starts by looking at 10-sided polygons then generalises the findings to any polygon, putting particular emphasis on external angles
Recreating the designs in this challenge requires you to break a problem down into manageable chunks and use the relationships between triangles and hexagons. An exercise in detail and elegance.
See if you can anticipate successive 'generations' of the two animals shown here.
In LOGO circles can be described in terms of polygons with an infinite (in this case large number) of sides - investigate this definition further.
Can you use LOGO to create this star pattern made from squares. Only basic LOGO knowledge needed.
This article gives an wonderful insight into students working on the Arclets problem that first appeared in the Sept 2002 edition of the NRICH website.
Bluey-green, white and transparent squares with a few odd bits of shapes around the perimeter. But, how many squares are there of each type in the complete circle? Study the picture and make an estimate.
What fractions of the largest circle are the two shaded regions?
Find the area of the annulus in terms of the length of the chord which is tangent to the inner circle.
Two circles are enclosed by a rectangle 12 units by x units. The distance between the centres of the two circles is x/3 units. How big is x?
Points A, B and C are the centres of three circles, each one of which touches the other two. Prove that the perimeter of the triangle ABC is equal to the diameter of the largest circle.
Given a 2 by 2 by 2 skeletal cube with one route `down' the cube. How many routes are there from A to B?
Which is a better fit, a square peg in a round hole or a round peg in a square hole?
Can you cut a regular hexagon into two pieces to make a parallelogram? Try cutting it into three pieces to make a rhombus!
Draw three straight lines to separate these shapes into four groups - each group must contain one of each shape.
This investigation explores using different shapes as the hands of the clock. What things occur as the the hands move.