Resources tagged with Generalising similar to Two's Company:
Other tags that relate to Two's Company
Curious. Interactivities. Resilient. Conditional probability. Visualising. Theoretical probability. Resourceful. Generalising. Equally likely outcomes. Experimental probability.There are 123 results
Broad Topics > Using, Applying and Reasoning about Mathematics > Generalising
Tower of Hanoi
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
The Tower of Hanoi is an ancient mathematical challenge. Working on the building blocks may help you to explain the patterns you notice.
Frogs
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
How many moves does it take to swap over some red and blue frogs? Do you have a method?
Where Can We Visit?
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Charlie and Abi put a counter on 42. They wondered if they could visit all the other numbers on their 1-100 board, moving the counter using just these two operations: x2 and -5. What do you think?
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?
Searching for Mean(ing)
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Imagine you have a large supply of 3kg and 8kg weights. How many of each weight would you need for the average (mean) of the weights to be 6kg? What other averages could you have?
How Much Can We Spend?
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
A country has decided to have just two different coins, 3z and 5z coins. Which totals can be made? Is there a largest total that cannot be made? How do you know?
More Number Pyramids
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
When number pyramids have a sequence on the bottom layer, some interesting patterns emerge...
Thank Your Lucky Stars
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
A counter is placed in the bottom right hand corner of a grid. You toss a coin and move the star according to the following rules: ... What is the probability that you end up in the top left-hand. . . .
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?
Dotty Triangles
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Imagine an infinitely large sheet of square dotty paper on which you can draw triangles of any size you wish (providing each vertex is on a dot). What areas is it/is it not possible to draw?
Make 37
Age 7 to 14 Challenge Level:
Four bags contain a large number of 1s, 3s, 5s and 7s. Pick any ten numbers from the bags above so that their total is 37.
Regular Hexagon Loops
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Make some loops out of regular hexagons. What rules can you discover?
Repeaters
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Choose any 3 digits and make a 6 digit number by repeating the 3 digits in the same order (e.g. 594594). Explain why whatever digits you choose the number will always be divisible by 7, 11 and 13.
Mind Reading
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Think of a number, add one, double it, take away 3, add the number you first thought of, add 7, divide by 3 and take away the number you first thought of. You should now be left with 2. How do I. . . .
Keep it Simple
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Can all unit fractions be written as the sum of two unit fractions?
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?
Hidden Rectangles
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Rectangles are considered different if they vary in size or have different locations. How many different rectangles can be drawn on a chessboard?
Partitioning Revisited
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
We can show that (x + 1)² = x² + 2x + 1 by considering the area of an (x + 1) by (x + 1) square. Show in a similar way that (x + 2)² = x² + 4x + 4
Three Times Seven
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
A three digit number abc is always divisible by 7 when 2a+3b+c is divisible by 7. Why?
Christmas Chocolates
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
How could Penny, Tom and Matthew work out how many chocolates there are in different sized boxes?
...on the Wall
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Explore the effect of reflecting in two intersecting mirror lines.
Enclosing Squares
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Can you find sets of sloping lines that enclose a square?
Cubes Within Cubes Revisited
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Imagine starting with one yellow cube and covering it all over with a single layer of red cubes, and then covering that cube with a layer of blue cubes. How many red and blue cubes would you need?
Tilted Squares
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
It's easy to work out the areas of most squares that we meet, but what if they were tilted?
Mini-max
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Consider all two digit numbers (10, 11, . . . ,99). In writing down all these numbers, which digits occur least often, and which occur most often ? What about three digit numbers, four digit numbers. . . .
Sum Equals Product
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
The sum of the numbers 4 and 1 [1/3] is the same as the product of 4 and 1 [1/3]; that is to say 4 + 1 [1/3] = 4 × 1 [1/3]. What other numbers have the sum equal to the product and can this be so for. . . .
Special Sums and Products
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Find some examples of pairs of numbers such that their sum is a factor of their product. eg. 4 + 12 = 16 and 4 × 12 = 48 and 16 is a factor of 48.
Picturing Triangular Numbers
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Triangular numbers can be represented by a triangular array of squares. What do you notice about the sum of identical triangle numbers?
Picturing Square Numbers
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Square numbers can be represented as the sum of consecutive odd numbers. What is the sum of 1 + 3 + ..... + 149 + 151 + 153?
Shear Magic
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
What are the areas of these triangles? What do you notice? Can you generalise to other "families" of triangles?
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.
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.
Handshakes
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Can you find an efficient method to work out how many handshakes there would be if hundreds of people met?
Egyptian Fractions
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
The Egyptians expressed all fractions as the sum of different unit fractions. Here is a chance to explore how they could have written different fractions.
Konigsberg Plus
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Euler discussed whether or not it was possible to stroll around Koenigsberg crossing each of its seven bridges exactly once. Experiment with different numbers of islands and bridges.
Overlap
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
A red square and a blue square overlap so that the corner of the red square rests on the centre of the blue square. Show that, whatever the orientation of the red square, it covers a quarter of the. . . .
Who Is the Fairest of Them All ?
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Explore the effect of combining enlargements.
Chess
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
What would be the smallest number of moves needed to move a Knight from a chess set from one corner to the opposite corner of a 99 by 99 square board?
Litov's Mean Value Theorem
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Start with two numbers and generate a sequence where the next number is the mean of the last two numbers...
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. . . .
What Numbers Can We Make Now?
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Imagine we have four bags containing numbers from a sequence. What numbers can we make now?
Route to Infinity
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Can you describe this route to infinity? Where will the arrows take you next?
Steps to the Podium
Age 7 to 14 Challenge Level:
It starts quite simple but great opportunities for number discoveries and patterns!
2001 Spatial Oddity
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
With one cut a piece of card 16 cm by 9 cm can be made into two pieces which can be rearranged to form a square 12 cm by 12 cm. Explain how this can be done.
Magic Letters
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Charlie has made a Magic V. Can you use his example to make some more? And how about Magic Ls, Ns and Ws?
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. . . .
One O Five
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
You can work out the number someone else is thinking of as follows. Ask a friend to think of any natural number less than 100. Then ask them to tell you the remainders when this number is divided by. . . .
Great Granddad
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Great Granddad is very proud of his telegram from the Queen congratulating him on his hundredth birthday and he has friends who are even older than he is... When was he born?
What Numbers Can We Make?
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Imagine we have four bags containing a large number of 1s, 4s, 7s and 10s. What numbers can we make?
NRICH is part of the family of activities in the Millennium Mathematics Project.