Other tags that relate to Efficient Cutting
Circumference and arc length. Spheres, cylinders & cones. 2D shapes and their properties. Generalising. Pythagoras' theorem. Visualising. Volume and capacity. Regular polygons and circles. Cubes & cuboids. Group worthy.There are 160 results
Broad Topics > Using, Applying and Reasoning about Mathematics > Mathematical reasoning & proof
A Chordingly
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Find the area of the annulus in terms of the length of the chord which is tangent to the inner circle.
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.
Coins on a Plate
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
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.
Volume of a Pyramid and a Cone
Age 11 to 14
These formulae are often quoted, but rarely proved. In this article, we derive the formulae for the volumes of a square-based pyramid and a cone, using relatively simple mathematical concepts.
Lens Angle
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
Find the missing angle between the two secants to the circle when the two angles at the centre subtended by the arcs created by the intersections of the secants and the circle are 50 and 120 degrees.
Round and Round
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
Prove that the shaded area of the semicircle is equal to the area of the inner circle.
Rhombus in Rectangle
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
Take any rectangle ABCD such that AB > BC. The point P is on AB and Q is on CD. Show that there is exactly one position of P and Q such that APCQ is a rhombus.
Three Balls
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
A circle has centre O and angle POR = angle QOR. Construct tangents at P and Q meeting at T. Draw a circle with diameter OT. Do P and Q lie inside, or on, or outside this circle?
Cyclic Quad Jigsaw
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
A picture is made by joining five small quadrilaterals together to make a large quadrilateral. Is it possible to draw a similar picture if all the small quadrilaterals are cyclic?
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?
Encircling
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
An equilateral triangle is sitting on top of a square. What is the radius of the circle that circumscribes this shape?
The Genie in the Jar
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
This jar used to hold perfumed oil. It contained enough oil to fill granid silver bottles. Each bottle held enough to fill ozvik golden goblets and each goblet held enough to fill vaswik crystal. . . .
Circle Box
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
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?
Similarly So
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
ABCD is a square. P is the midpoint of AB and is joined to C. A line from D perpendicular to PC meets the line at the point Q. Prove AQ = AD.
The Pillar of Chios
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
Semicircles are drawn on the sides of a rectangle. Prove that the sum of the areas of the four crescents is equal to the area of the rectangle.
Mouhefanggai
Age 14 to 16
Imagine two identical cylindrical pipes meeting at right angles and think about the shape of the space which belongs to both pipes. Early Chinese mathematicians call this shape the mouhefanggai.
Concrete Wheel
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
A huge wheel is rolling past your window. What do you see?
Towering Trapeziums
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
Can you find the areas of the trapezia in this sequence?
Ratty
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
If you know the sizes of the angles marked with coloured dots in this diagram which angles can you find by calculation?
Cyclic Quadrilaterals
Age 11 to 16 Challenge Level:
Draw some quadrilaterals on a 9-point circle and work out the angles. Is there a theorem?
Fitting In
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
The largest square which fits into a circle is ABCD and EFGH is a square with G and H on the line CD and E and F on the circumference of the circle. Show that AB = 5EF. Similarly the largest. . . .
Matter of Scale
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
Prove Pythagoras' Theorem using enlargements and scale factors.
Pent
Age 14 to 18 Challenge Level:
The diagram shows a regular pentagon with sides of unit length. Find all the angles in the diagram. Prove that the quadrilateral shown in red is a rhombus.
Pythagorean Triples I
Age 11 to 16
The first of two articles on Pythagorean Triples which asks how many right angled triangles can you find with the lengths of each side exactly a whole number measurement. Try it!
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?
Largest Product
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Which set of numbers that add to 10 have the largest product?
Disappearing Square
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Do you know how to find the area of a triangle? You can count the squares. What happens if we turn the triangle on end? Press the button and see. Try counting the number of units in the triangle now. . . .
Pythagorean Triples II
Age 11 to 16
This is the second article on right-angled triangles whose edge lengths are whole numbers.
Is it Magic or Is it Maths?
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Here are three 'tricks' to amaze your friends. But the really clever trick is explaining to them why these 'tricks' are maths not magic. Like all good magicians, you should practice by trying. . . .
Picturing Pythagorean Triples
Age 14 to 18
This article discusses how every Pythagorean triple (a, b, c) can be illustrated by a square and an L shape within another square. You are invited to find some triples for yourself.
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. . . .
Thirty Nine, Seventy Five
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
We have exactly 100 coins. There are five different values of coins. We have decided to buy a piece of computer software for 39.75. We have the correct money, not a penny more, not a penny less! Can. . . .
Königsberg
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Can you cross each of the seven bridges that join the north and south of the river to the two islands, once and once only, without retracing your steps?
Long Short
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
What can you say about the lengths of the sides of a quadrilateral whose vertices are on a unit circle?
More Number Pyramids
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
When number pyramids have a sequence on the bottom layer, some interesting patterns emerge...
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. . . .
Logic
Age 7 to 14
What does logic mean to us and is that different to mathematical logic? We will explore these questions in this article.
Go Forth and Generalise
Age 11 to 14
Spotting patterns can be an important first step - explaining why it is appropriate to generalise is the next step, and often the most interesting and important.
Pythagoras Proofs
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
Can you make sense of these three proofs of Pythagoras' Theorem?
Tourism
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
If you can copy a network without lifting your pen off the paper and without drawing any line twice, then it is traversable. Decide which of these diagrams are traversable.
Con Tricks
Age 11 to 14
Here are some examples of 'cons', and see if you can figure out where the trick is.
Winning Team
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Nine cross country runners compete in a team competition in which there are three matches. If you were a judge how would you decide who would win?
Seven Squares - Group-worthy Task
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Choose a couple of the sequences. Try to picture how to make the next, and the next, and the next... Can you describe your reasoning?
How Many Dice?
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
A standard die has the numbers 1, 2 and 3 are opposite 6, 5 and 4 respectively so that opposite faces add to 7? If you make standard dice by writing 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 on blank cubes you will find. . . .
Sticky Numbers
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Can you arrange the numbers 1 to 17 in a row so that each adjacent pair adds up to a square number?
L-triominoes
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
L triominoes can fit together to make larger versions of themselves. Is every size possible to make in this way?
Yih or Luk Tsut K'i or Three Men's Morris
Age 11 to 18 Challenge Level:
Some puzzles requiring no knowledge of knot theory, just a careful inspection of the patterns. A glimpse of the classification of knots and a little about prime knots, crossing numbers and. . . .
A Long Time at the Till
Age 14 to 18 Challenge Level:
Try to solve this very difficult problem and then study our two suggested solutions. How would you use your knowledge to try to solve variants on the original problem?
NRICH is part of the family of activities in the Millennium Mathematics Project.