# Resources tagged with: Generalising

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

### There are 128 results

Broad Topics > Thinking Mathematically > Generalising

### Picturing Square Numbers

##### Age 11 to 14Challenge Level

Square numbers can be represented as the sum of consecutive odd numbers. What is the sum of 1 + 3 + ..... + 149 + 151 + 153?

### Hidden Rectangles

##### Age 11 to 14Challenge Level

Rectangles are considered different if they vary in size or have different locations. How many different rectangles can be drawn on a chessboard?

### Cubes Within Cubes Revisited

##### Age 11 to 14Challenge 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?

### Christmas Chocolates

##### Age 11 to 14Challenge Level

How could Penny, Tom and Matthew work out how many chocolates there are in different sized boxes?

### Frogs

##### Age 11 to 14Challenge Level

How many moves does it take to swap over some red and blue frogs? Do you have a method?

### Painted Cube

##### Age 14 to 16Challenge Level

Imagine a large cube made from small red cubes being dropped into a pot of yellow paint. How many of the small cubes will have yellow paint on their faces?

### Shear Magic

##### Age 11 to 14Challenge Level

Explore the area of families of parallelograms and triangles. Can you find rules to work out the areas?

### Cuboid Challenge

##### Age 11 to 16Challenge Level

What's the largest volume of box you can make from a square of paper?

### Sliding Puzzle

##### Age 11 to 16Challenge Level

The aim of the game is to slide the green square from the top right hand corner to the bottom left hand corner in the least number of moves.

### Partly Painted Cube

##### Age 14 to 16Challenge Level

Jo made a cube from some smaller cubes, painted some of the faces of the large cube, and then took it apart again. 45 small cubes had no paint on them at all. How many small cubes did Jo use?

### Jam

##### Age 14 to 16Challenge Level

To avoid losing think of another very well known game where the patterns of play are similar.

### Steel Cables

##### Age 14 to 16Challenge Level

Some students have been working out the number of strands needed for different sizes of cable. Can you make sense of their solutions?

### Jam

##### Age 14 to 16Challenge Level

A game for 2 players

### More Twisting and Turning

##### Age 11 to 16Challenge Level

It would be nice to have a strategy for disentangling any tangled ropes...

### Arithmagons

##### Age 11 to 16Challenge Level

Can you find the values at the vertices when you know the values on the edges?

### More Number Pyramids

##### Age 11 to 14Challenge Level

When number pyramids have a sequence on the bottom layer, some interesting patterns emerge...

### AMGM

##### Age 14 to 16Challenge Level

Can you use the diagram to prove the AM-GM inequality?

### One, Three, Five, Seven

##### Age 11 to 16Challenge Level

A game for 2 players. Set out 16 counters in rows of 1,3,5 and 7. Players take turns to remove any number of counters from a row. The player left with the last counter looses.

### Odd Differences

##### Age 14 to 16Challenge 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.

### Hypotenuse Lattice Points

##### Age 14 to 16Challenge Level

The triangle OMN has vertices on the axes with whole number co-ordinates. How many points with whole number coordinates are there on the hypotenuse MN?

### Partitioning Revisited

##### Age 11 to 14Challenge 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

### Tower of Hanoi

##### Age 11 to 14Challenge Level

The Tower of Hanoi is an ancient mathematical challenge. Working on the building blocks may help you to explain the patterns you notice.

### Regular Hexagon Loops

##### Age 11 to 14Challenge Level

Make some loops out of regular hexagons. What rules can you discover?

### Multiplication Square

##### Age 14 to 16Challenge Level

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

##### Age 11 to 14Challenge 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?

### Squares, Squares and More Squares

##### Age 11 to 14Challenge Level

Can you dissect a square into: 4, 7, 10, 13... other squares? 6, 9, 12, 15... other squares? 8, 11, 14... other squares?

### Seven Squares - Group-worthy Task

##### Age 11 to 14Challenge 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?

### Harmonic Triangle

##### Age 14 to 16Challenge Level

Can you see how to build a harmonic triangle? Can you work out the next two rows?

### Sums of Pairs

##### Age 11 to 16Challenge 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?”

### Nim-like Games

##### Age 7 to 16Challenge Level

A collection of games on the NIM theme

### Nim

##### Age 14 to 16Challenge Level

Start with any number of counters in any number of piles. 2 players take it in turns to remove any number of counters from a single pile. The loser is the player who takes the last counter.

### Got It

##### Age 7 to 14Challenge Level

A game for two people, or play online. Given a target number, say 23, and a range of numbers to choose from, say 1-4, players take it in turns to add to the running total to hit their target.

### Konigsberg Plus

##### Age 11 to 14Challenge 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.

### Sum Equals Product

##### Age 11 to 14Challenge 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. . . .

### Special Sums and Products

##### Age 11 to 14Challenge 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.

### Games Related to Nim

##### Age 5 to 16

This article for teachers describes several games, found on the site, all of which have a related structure that can be used to develop the skills of strategic planning.

### Picturing Triangular Numbers

##### Age 11 to 14Challenge Level

Triangular numbers can be represented by a triangular array of squares. What do you notice about the sum of identical triangle numbers?

### Number Pyramids

##### Age 11 to 14Challenge Level

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

### 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.

##### Age 11 to 14Challenge 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. . . .

### Tourism

##### Age 11 to 14Challenge 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.

### Loopy

##### Age 14 to 16Challenge Level

Investigate sequences given by $a_n = \frac{1+a_{n-1}}{a_{n-2}}$ for different choices of the first two terms. Make a conjecture about the behaviour of these sequences. Can you prove your conjecture?

### Winning Lines

##### Age 7 to 16

An article for teachers and pupils that encourages you to look at the mathematical properties of similar games.

### Nim-7 for Two

##### Age 5 to 14Challenge Level

Nim-7 game for an adult and child. Who will be the one to take the last counter?

### Squares in Rectangles

##### Age 11 to 14Challenge Level

A 2 by 3 rectangle contains 8 squares and a 3 by 4 rectangle contains 20 squares. What size rectangle(s) contain(s) exactly 100 squares? Can you find them all?

### Is There a Theorem?

##### Age 11 to 14Challenge Level

Draw a square. A second square of the same size slides around the first always maintaining contact and keeping the same orientation. How far does the dot travel?

### Got it for Two

##### Age 7 to 14Challenge Level

Got It game for an adult and child. How can you play so that you know you will always win?

### Coordinate Patterns

##### Age 11 to 14Challenge Level

Charlie and Alison have been drawing patterns on coordinate grids. Can you picture where the patterns lead?

### Route to Infinity

##### Age 11 to 14Challenge Level

Can you describe this route to infinity? Where will the arrows take you next?

### Steps to the Podium

##### Age 7 to 14Challenge Level

It starts quite simple but great opportunities for number discoveries and patterns!