# Resources tagged with: Mathematical reasoning & proof

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### There are 173 results

Broad Topics > Thinking Mathematically > Mathematical reasoning & proof

### Plus or Minus

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

Make and prove a conjecture about the value of the product of the Fibonacci numbers $F_{n+1}F_{n-1}$.

### Polynomial Relations

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

Given any two polynomials in a single variable it is always possible to eliminate the variable and obtain a formula showing the relationship between the two polynomials. Try this one.

### Pair Squares

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

The sum of any two of the numbers 2, 34 and 47 is a perfect square. Choose three square numbers and find sets of three integers with this property. Generalise to four integers.

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

Find all positive integers a and b for which the two equations: x^2-ax+b = 0 and x^2-bx+a = 0 both have positive integer solutions.

### Telescoping Functions

##### Age 16 to 18

Take a complicated fraction with the product of five quartics top and bottom and reduce this to a whole number. This is a numerical example involving some clever algebra.

### The Clue Is in the Question

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

Starting with one of the mini-challenges, how many of the other mini-challenges will you invent for yourself?

### Diverging

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

Show that for natural numbers x and y if x/y > 1 then x/y>(x+1)/(y+1}>1. Hence prove that the product for i=1 to n of [(2i)/(2i-1)] tends to infinity as n tends to infinity.

### Thousand Words

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

Here the diagram says it all. Can you find the diagram?

### Golden Eggs

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

Find a connection between the shape of a special ellipse and an infinite string of nested square roots.

### Fractional Calculus III

##### Age 16 to 18

Fractional calculus is a generalisation of ordinary calculus where you can differentiate n times when n is not a whole number.

### Interpolating Polynomials

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

Given a set of points (x,y) with distinct x values, find a polynomial that goes through all of them, then prove some results about the existence and uniqueness of these polynomials.

### Particularly General

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

By proving these particular identities, prove the existence of general cases.

### Unit Interval

##### Age 14 to 18 Challenge Level:

Take any two numbers between 0 and 1. Prove that the sum of the numbers is always less than one plus their product?

### Road Maker 2

##### Age 16 to 18 Short Challenge Level:

Can you work out where the blue-and-red brick roads end?

### Rational Roots

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

Given that a, b and c are natural numbers show that if sqrt a+sqrt b is rational then it is a natural number. Extend this to 3 variables.

### How Many Solutions?

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

Find all the solutions to the this equation.

### Proof Sorter - Quadratic Equation

##### Age 14 to 18 Challenge Level:

This is an interactivity in which you have to sort the steps in the completion of the square into the correct order to prove the formula for the solutions of quadratic equations.

### Proof Sorter - Geometric Sequence

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

Can you correctly order the steps in the proof of the formula for the sum of the first n terms in a geometric sequence?

### To Prove or Not to Prove

##### Age 14 to 18

A serious but easily readable discussion of proof in mathematics with some amusing stories and some interesting examples.

### Leonardo's Problem

##### Age 14 to 18 Challenge Level:

A, B & C own a half, a third and a sixth of a coin collection. Each grab some coins, return some, then share equally what they had put back, finishing with their own share. How rich are they?

### Dalmatians

##### Age 14 to 18 Challenge Level:

Investigate the sequences obtained by starting with any positive 2 digit number (10a+b) and repeatedly using the rule 10a+b maps to 10b-a to get the next number in the sequence.

### Impossible Triangles?

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

Which of these triangular jigsaws are impossible to finish?

### Generally Geometric

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

Generalise the sum of a GP by using derivatives to make the coefficients into powers of the natural numbers.

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

Find all real solutions of the equation (x^2-7x+11)^(x^2-11x+30) = 1.

### 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. . . .

### Mind Your Ps and Qs

##### Age 16 to 18 Short Challenge Level:

Sort these mathematical propositions into a series of 8 correct statements.

### Proof: A Brief Historical Survey

##### Age 14 to 18

If you think that mathematical proof is really clearcut and universal then you should read this article.

### Water Pistols

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

With n people anywhere in a field each shoots a water pistol at the nearest person. In general who gets wet? What difference does it make if n is odd or even?

### Contrary Logic

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

Can you invert the logic to prove these statements?

### Direct Logic

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

Can you work through these direct proofs, using our interactive proof sorters?

### Iffy Logic

##### Age 14 to 18 Challenge Level:

Can you rearrange the cards to make a series of correct mathematical statements?

### Binomial

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

By considering powers of (1+x), show that the sum of the squares of the binomial coefficients from 0 to n is 2nCn

### Mechanical Integration

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

To find the integral of a polynomial, evaluate it at some special points and add multiples of these values.

### There's a Limit

##### Age 14 to 18 Challenge Level:

Explore the continued fraction: 2+3/(2+3/(2+3/2+...)) What do you notice when successive terms are taken? What happens to the terms if the fraction goes on indefinitely?

### Target Six

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

Show that x = 1 is a solution of the equation x^(3/2) - 8x^(-3/2) = 7 and find all other solutions.

### Sixational

##### Age 14 to 18 Challenge Level:

The nth term of a sequence is given by the formula n^3 + 11n . Find the first four terms of the sequence given by this formula and the first term of the sequence which is bigger than one million. . . .

### Three Ways

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

If x + y = -1 find the largest value of xy by coordinate geometry, by calculus and by algebra.

### Little and Large

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

A point moves around inside a rectangle. What are the least and the greatest values of the sum of the squares of the distances from the vertices?

### Notty Logic

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

Have a go at being mathematically negative, by negating these statements.

### Sperner's Lemma

##### Age 16 to 18

An article about the strategy for playing The Triangle Game which appears on the NRICH site. It contains a simple lemma about labelling a grid of equilateral triangles within a triangular frame.

### More Dicey Decisions

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

The twelve edge totals of a standard six-sided die are distributed symmetrically. Will the same symmetry emerge with a dodecahedral die?

### Euclid's Algorithm II

##### Age 16 to 18

We continue the discussion given in Euclid's Algorithm I, and here we shall discover when an equation of the form ax+by=c has no solutions, and when it has infinitely many solutions.

### Tetra Inequalities

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

Prove that in every tetrahedron there is a vertex such that the three edges meeting there have lengths which could be the sides of a triangle.

##### Age 14 to 18 Challenge Level:

Which of these roads will satisfy a Munchkin builder?

### Continued Fractions II

##### Age 16 to 18

In this article we show that every whole number can be written as a continued fraction of the form k/(1+k/(1+k/...)).

### Proof Sorter - Sum of an Arithmetic Sequence

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

Put the steps of this proof in order to find the formula for the sum of an arithmetic sequence

### Without Calculus

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

Given that u>0 and v>0 find the smallest possible value of 1/u + 1/v given that u + v = 5 by different methods.

### Dodgy Proofs

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

These proofs are wrong. Can you see why?

### Proof of Pick's Theorem

##### Age 16 to 18 Challenge Level:

Follow the hints and prove Pick's Theorem.

### An Introduction to Number Theory

##### Age 16 to 18

An introduction to some beautiful results of Number Theory (a branch of pure mathematics devoted primarily to the study of the integers and integer-valued functions)