# Resources tagged with: Creating and manipulating expressions and formulae

Filter by: Content type:
Age range:
Challenge level:

### There are 132 results

Broad Topics > Algebraic expressions, equations and formulae > Creating and manipulating expressions and formulae

### Always the Same

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

Arrange the numbers 1 to 16 into a 4 by 4 array. Choose a number. Cross out the numbers on the same row and column. Repeat this process. Add up you four numbers. Why do they always add up to 34?

### Magic Squares for Special Occasions

##### Age 11 to 16

This article explains how to make your own magic square to mark a special occasion with the special date of your choice on the top line.

### Crossed Ends

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

Crosses can be drawn on number grids of various sizes. What do you notice when you add opposite ends?

### Why 8?

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

Choose any four consecutive even numbers. Multiply the two middle numbers together. Multiply the first and last numbers. Now subtract your second answer from the first. Try it with your own. . . .

### Multiply the Addition Square

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

If you take a three by three square on a 1-10 addition square and multiply the diagonally opposite numbers together, what is the difference between these products. Why?

### Special Numbers

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

My two digit number is special because adding the sum of its digits to the product of its digits gives me my original number. What could my number be?

### Back to Basics

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

Find b where 3723(base 10) = 123(base b).

### Adding in Rows

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

List any 3 numbers. It is always possible to find a subset of adjacent numbers that add up to a multiple of 3. Can you explain why and prove it?

### Sums of Pairs

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

Jo has three numbers which she adds together in pairs. When she does this she has three different totals: 11, 17 and 22 What are the three numbers Jo had to start with?”

### Please Explain

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

Visitors to Earth from the distant planet of Zub-Zorna were amazed when they found out that when the digits in this multiplication were reversed, the answer was the same! Find a way to explain. . . .

### Robert's Spreadsheet

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

Robert noticed some interesting patterns when he highlighted square numbers in a spreadsheet. Can you prove that the patterns will continue?

### Think of Two Numbers

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

Think of two whole numbers under 10, and follow the steps. I can work out both your numbers very quickly. How?

### Chocolate Maths

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

Pick the number of times a week that you eat chocolate. This number must be more than one but less than ten. Multiply this number by 2. Add 5 (for Sunday). Multiply by 50... Can you explain why it. . . .

### The Number Jumbler

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

The Number Jumbler can always work out your chosen symbol. Can you work out how?

### Reversals

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

Where should you start, if you want to finish back where you started?

### Consecutive Squares

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

The squares of any 8 consecutive numbers can be arranged into two sets of four numbers with the same sum. True of false?

### The Simple Life

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

The answer is $5x+8y$... What was the question?

### Enriching Experience

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

Find the five distinct digits N, R, I, C and H in the following nomogram

### Summing Consecutive Numbers

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

15 = 7 + 8 and 10 = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4. Can you say which numbers can be expressed as the sum of two or more consecutive integers?

### Magic Sums and Products

##### Age 11 to 16

How to build your own magic squares.

### Top-heavy Pyramids

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

Use the numbers in the box below to make the base of a top-heavy pyramid whose top number is 200.

### Card Trick 1

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

Can you explain how this card trick works?

### Number Pyramids

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

Try entering different sets of numbers in the number pyramids. How does the total at the top change?

### More Mathematical Mysteries

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

Write down a three-digit number Change the order of the digits to get a different number Find the difference between the two three digit numbers Follow the rest of the instructions then try. . . .

### Good Work If You Can Get It

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

A job needs three men but in fact six people do it. When it is finished they are all paid the same. How much was paid in total, and much does each man get if the money is shared as Fred suggests?

### How Many Miles to Go?

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

How many more miles must the car travel before the numbers on the milometer and the trip meter contain the same digits in the same order?

### Your Number Was...

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

Think of a number and follow my instructions. Tell me your answer, and I'll tell you what you started with! Can you explain how I know?

### Your Number Is...

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

Think of a number and follow the machine's instructions... I know what your number is! Can you explain how I know?

### Pair Products

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

Choose four consecutive whole numbers. Multiply the first and last numbers together. Multiply the middle pair together. What do you notice?

### Even So

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

Find some triples of whole numbers a, b and c such that a^2 + b^2 + c^2 is a multiple of 4. Is it necessarily the case that a, b and c must all be even? If so, can you explain why?

### Mindreader

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

A little bit of algebra explains this 'magic'. Ask a friend to pick 3 consecutive numbers and to tell you a multiple of 3. Then ask them to add the four numbers and multiply by 67, and to tell you. . . .

### Algebra from Geometry

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

Account of an investigation which starts from the area of an annulus and leads to the formula for the difference of two squares.

### Matchless

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

There is a particular value of x, and a value of y to go with it, which make all five expressions equal in value, can you find that x, y pair ?

### Quick Times

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

32 x 38 = 30 x 40 + 2 x 8; 34 x 36 = 30 x 40 + 4 x 6; 56 x 54 = 50 x 60 + 6 x 4; 73 x 77 = 70 x 80 + 3 x 7 Verify and generalise if possible.

### Always a Multiple?

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

Think of a two digit number, reverse the digits, and add the numbers together. Something special happens...

### Legs Eleven

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

Take any four digit number. Move the first digit to the end and move the rest along. Now add your two numbers. Did you get a multiple of 11?

### Puzzling Place Value

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

Can you explain what is going on in these puzzling number tricks?

### Hallway Borders

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

What are the possible dimensions of a rectangular hallway if the number of tiles around the perimeter is exactly half the total number of tiles?

### Really Mr. Bond

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

115^2 = (110 x 120) + 25, that is 13225 895^2 = (890 x 900) + 25, that is 801025 Can you explain what is happening and generalise?

### Can They Be Equal?

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

Can you find rectangles where the value of the area is the same as the value of the perimeter?

### Janine's Conjecture

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

Janine noticed, while studying some cube numbers, that if you take three consecutive whole numbers and multiply them together and then add the middle number of the three, you get the middle number. . . .

### There and Back

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

Brian swims at twice the speed that a river is flowing, downstream from one moored boat to another and back again, taking 12 minutes altogether. How long would it have taken him in still water?

### Odd Differences

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

The diagram illustrates the formula: 1 + 3 + 5 + ... + (2n - 1) = n² Use the diagram to show that any odd number is the difference of two squares.

### Series Sums

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

Let S1 = 1 , S2 = 2 + 3, S3 = 4 + 5 + 6 ,........ Calculate S17.

### Never Prime

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

If a two digit number has its digits reversed and the smaller of the two numbers is subtracted from the larger, prove the difference can never be prime.

### Quadratic Patterns

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

Surprising numerical patterns can be explained using algebra and diagrams...

### Magic W

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

Find all the ways of placing the numbers 1 to 9 on a W shape, with 3 numbers on each leg, so that each set of 3 numbers has the same total.

### Multiplication Square

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

Pick a square within a multiplication square and add the numbers on each diagonal. What do you notice?

### Diophantine N-tuples

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

Can you explain why a sequence of operations always gives you perfect squares?

### Triangles Within Pentagons

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

Show that all pentagonal numbers are one third of a triangular number.