Other tags that relate to Summing Squares
Summation of series. Mathematical reasoning & proof. Working systematically. Square numbers. Interactivities. Cubes & cuboids. Generalising. Visualising. Creating and manipulating expressions and formulae. 2D representations of 3D shapes.There are 128 results
Broad Topics > Thinking Mathematically > Generalising
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?
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?
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?
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?
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?
Painted Cube
Age 14 to 16
Challenge 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 14
Challenge Level
Explore the area of families of parallelograms and triangles. Can you find rules to work out the areas?
Cuboid Challenge
Age 11 to 16
Challenge Level
What's the largest volume of box you can make from a square of paper?
Sliding Puzzle
Age 11 to 16
Challenge 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 16
Challenge 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 16
Challenge Level
To avoid losing think of another very well known game where the patterns of play are similar.
Steel Cables
Age 14 to 16
Challenge Level
Some students have been working out the number of strands needed for different sizes of cable. Can you make sense of their solutions?
More Twisting and Turning
Age 11 to 16
Challenge Level
It would be nice to have a strategy for disentangling any tangled ropes...
Arithmagons
Age 11 to 16
Challenge Level
Can you find the values at the vertices when you know the values on the edges?
More Number Pyramids
Age 11 to 14
Challenge Level
When number pyramids have a sequence on the bottom layer, some interesting patterns emerge...
One, Three, Five, Seven
Age 11 to 16
Challenge 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 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.
Hypotenuse Lattice Points
Age 14 to 16
Challenge 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 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
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.
Regular Hexagon Loops
Age 11 to 14
Challenge Level
Make some loops out of regular hexagons. What rules can you discover?
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?
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?
Squares, Squares and More Squares
Age 11 to 14
Challenge 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 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?
Harmonic Triangle
Age 14 to 16
Challenge Level
Can you see how to build a harmonic triangle? Can you work out the next two rows?
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?”
Nim
Age 14 to 16
Challenge 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 14
Challenge 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 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.
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. . . .
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.
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 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?
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?
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.
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. . . .
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.
Loopy
Age 14 to 16
Challenge 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 14
Challenge 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 14
Challenge 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 14
Challenge 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 14
Challenge 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 14
Challenge Level
Charlie and Alison have been drawing patterns on coordinate grids. Can you picture where the patterns lead?
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!
NRICH is part of the family of activities in the Millennium Mathematics Project.