What is an AC voltage? How much power does an AC power source supply?
There are many different methods to solve this geometrical problem - how many can you find?
What is the longest stick that can be carried horizontally along a narrow corridor and around a right-angled bend?
This problem in geometry has been solved in no less than EIGHT ways by a pair of students. How would you solve it? How many of their solutions can you follow? How are they the same or different?. . . .
The coke machine in college takes 50 pence pieces. It also takes a certain foreign coin of traditional design...
A moveable screen slides along a mirrored corridor towards a centrally placed light source. A ray of light from that source is directed towards a wall of the corridor, which it strikes at 45 degrees. . . .
In this problem we are faced with an apparently easy area problem, but it has gone horribly wrong! What happened?
An observer is on top of a lighthouse. How far from the foot of the lighthouse is the horizon that the observer can see?
It is obvious that we can fit four circles of diameter 1 unit in a square of side 2 without overlapping. What is the smallest square into which we can fit 3 circles of diameter 1 unit?
Can you deduce the familiar properties of the sine and cosine functions starting from these three different mathematical representations?
A dot starts at the point (1,0) and turns anticlockwise. Can you estimate the height of the dot after it has turned through 45 degrees? Can you calculate its height?
Six circular discs are packed in different-shaped boxes so that the discs touch their neighbours and the sides of the box. Can you put the boxes in order according to the areas of their bases?
Join some regular octahedra, face touching face and one vertex of each meeting at a point. How many octahedra can you fit around this point?
The area of a square inscribed in a circle with a unit radius is, satisfyingly, 2. What is the area of a regular hexagon inscribed in a circle with a unit radius?
Describe how to construct three circles which have areas in the ratio 1:2:3.
Prove that the shaded area of the semicircle is equal to the area of the inner circle.
If for any triangle ABC tan(A - B) + tan(B - C) + tan(C - A) = 0 what can you say about the triangle?
What are the shortest distances between the centres of opposite faces of a regular solid dodecahedron on the surface and through the middle of the dodecahedron?
Three squares are drawn on the sides of a triangle ABC. Their areas are respectively 18 000, 20 000 and 26 000 square centimetres. If the outer vertices of the squares are joined, three more. . . .
The sides of a triangle are 25, 39 and 40 units of length. Find the diameter of the circumscribed circle.
Beautiful mathematics. Two 18 year old students gave eight different proofs of one result then generalised it from the 3 by 1 case to the n by 1 case and proved the general result.
The first of three articles on the History of Trigonometry. This takes us from the Egyptians to early work on trigonometry in China.
Trigonometry, circles and triangles combine in this short challenge.
The second of three articles on the History of Trigonometry.
The third of three articles on the History of Trigonometry.
Without using a calculator, computer or tables find the exact values of cos36cos72 and also cos36 - cos72.
Three points A, B and C lie in this order on a line, and P is any point in the plane. Use the Cosine Rule to prove the following statement.
Re-arrange the pieces of the puzzle to form a rectangle and then to form an equilateral triangle. Calculate the angles and lengths.
Which is larger cos(sin x) or sin(cos x) ? Does this depend on x ?
If a is the radius of the axle, b the radius of each ball-bearing, and c the radius of the hub, why does the number of ball bearings n determine the ratio c/a? Find a formula for c/a in terms of n.
From the measurements and the clue given find the area of the square that is not covered by the triangle and the circle.
On a nine-point pegboard a band is stretched over 4 pegs in a "figure of 8" arrangement. How many different "figure of 8" arrangements can be made ?
What angle is needed for a ball to do a circuit of the billiard table and then pass through its original position?
In this 'mesh' of sine graphs, one of the graphs is the graph of the sine function. Find the equations of the other graphs to reproduce the pattern.
The length AM can be calculated using trigonometry in two different ways. Create this pair of equivalent calculations for different peg boards, notice a general result, and account for it.
Logo helps us to understand gradients of lines and why Muggles Magic is not magic but mathematics. See the problem Muggles magic.
How can you represent the curvature of a cylinder on a flat piece of paper?
Find the exact values of some trig. ratios from this rectangle in which a cyclic quadrilateral cuts off four right angled triangles.
Draw three equal line segments in a unit circle to divide the circle into four parts of equal area.
Prove Pythagoras' Theorem for right-angled spherical triangles.
What does Pythagoras' Theorem tell you about these angles: 90°, (45+x)° and (45-x)° in a triangle?
The area of a regular pentagon looks about twice as a big as the pentangle star drawn within it. Is it?
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
Can you prove this formula for finding the area of a quadrilateral from its diagonals?
Two perpendicular lines lie across each other and the end points are joined to form a quadrilateral. Eight ratios are defined, three are given but five need to be found.
Two places are diametrically opposite each other on the same line of latitude. Compare the distances between them travelling along the line of latitude and travelling over the nearest pole.
The Earth is further from the Sun than Venus, but how much further? Twice as far? Ten times?
How far should the roof overhang to shade windows from the mid-day sun?
Two problems about infinite processes where smaller and smaller steps are taken and you have to discover what happens in the limit.
Use simple trigonometry to calculate the distance along the flight path from London to Sydney.