Other tags that relate to Efficient Cutting
2D shapes and their properties. Regular polygons and circles. Group worthy. Spheres, cylinders & cones. Generalising. Visualising. Cubes & cuboids. Pythagoras' theorem. Circumference and arc length. Volume and capacity.There are 65 results
Broad Topics > Angles, Polygons, and Geometrical Proof > 2D shapes and their properties
Efficient Cutting
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Use a single sheet of A4 paper and make a cylinder having the greatest possible volume. The cylinder must be closed off by a circle at each end.
Playground Snapshot
Age 7 to 14 Challenge Level:
The image in this problem is part of a piece of equipment found in the playground of a school. How would you describe it to someone over the phone?
Square Areas
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Can you work out the area of the inner square and give an explanation of how you did it?
Bow Tie
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Show how this pentagonal tile can be used to tile the plane and describe the transformations which map this pentagon to its images in the tiling.
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.
Holly
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
The ten arcs forming the edges of the "holly leaf" are all arcs of circles of radius 1 cm. Find the length of the perimeter of the holly leaf and the area of its surface.
Rolling Around
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
A circle rolls around the outside edge of a square so that its circumference always touches the edge of the square. Can you describe the locus of the centre of the circle?
Opposite Vertices
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Can you recreate squares and rhombuses if you are only given a side or a diagonal?
LOGO Challenge - Circles as Animals
Age 11 to 16 Challenge Level:
See if you can anticipate successive 'generations' of the two animals shown here.
Pentagonal
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
Can you prove that the sum of the distances of any point inside a square from its sides is always equal (half the perimeter)? Can you prove it to be true for a rectangle or a hexagon?
Poly Plug Rectangles
Age 5 to 14 Challenge Level:
The computer has made a rectangle and will tell you the number of spots it uses in total. Can you find out where the rectangle is?
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?
Like a Circle in a Spiral
Age 7 to 16 Challenge Level:
A cheap and simple toy with lots of mathematics. Can you interpret the images that are produced? Can you predict the pattern that will be produced using different wheels?
What Shape?
Age 7 to 14 Challenge Level:
This task develops spatial reasoning skills. By framing and asking questions a member of the team has to find out what mathematical object they have chosen.
Towering Trapeziums
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
Can you find the areas of the trapezia in this sequence?
Hex
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Explain how the thirteen pieces making up the regular hexagon shown in the diagram can be re-assembled to form three smaller regular hexagons congruent to each other.
Circumnavigation
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
The sides of a triangle are 25, 39 and 40 units of length. Find the diameter of the circumscribed circle.
What Shape for Two
Age 7 to 14 Challenge Level:
'What Shape?' activity for adult and child. Can you ask good questions so you can work out which shape your partner has chosen?
Squaring the Circle and Circling the Square
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
If you continue the pattern, can you predict what each of the following areas will be? Try to explain your prediction.
Circles, Circles Everywhere
Age 7 to 14
This article for pupils gives some examples of how circles have featured in people's lives for centuries.
Pi, a Very Special Number
Age 7 to 14
Read all about the number pi and the mathematicians who have tried to find out its value as accurately as possible.
Roaming Rhombus
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
We have four rods of equal lengths hinged at their endpoints to form a rhombus ABCD. Keeping AB fixed we allow CD to take all possible positions in the plane. What is the locus (or path) of the point. . . .
Square Pegs
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Which is a better fit, a square peg in a round hole or a round peg in a square hole?
From One Shape to Another
Age 7 to 14
Read about David Hilbert who proved that any polygon could be cut up into a certain number of pieces that could be put back together to form any other polygon of equal area.
Floored
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
A floor is covered by a tessellation of equilateral triangles, each having three equal arcs inside it. What proportion of the area of the tessellation is shaded?
Dividing the Field
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
A farmer has a field which is the shape of a trapezium as illustrated below. To increase his profits he wishes to grow two different crops. To do this he would like to divide the field into two. . . .
Not So Little X
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Two circles are enclosed by a rectangle 12 units by x units. The distance between the centres of the two circles is x/3 units. How big is x?
Three Four Five
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
Two semi-circles (each of radius 1/2) touch each other, and a semi-circle of radius 1 touches both of them. Find the radius of the circle which touches all three semi-circles.
Lying and Cheating
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Follow the instructions and you can take a rectangle, cut it into 4 pieces, discard two small triangles, put together the remaining two pieces and end up with a rectangle the same size. Try it!
Bicentric Quadrilaterals
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
Investigate the properties of quadrilaterals which can be drawn with a circle just touching each side and another circle just touching each vertex.
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.
Lawnmower
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
A kite shaped lawn consists of an equilateral triangle ABC of side 130 feet and an isosceles triangle BCD in which BD and CD are of length 169 feet. A gardener has a motor mower which cuts strips of. . . .
Circumspection
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
M is any point on the line AB. Squares of side length AM and MB are constructed and their circumcircles intersect at P (and M). Prove that the lines AD and BE produced pass through P.
Blue and White
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Identical squares of side one unit contain some circles shaded blue. In which of the four examples is the shaded area greatest?
Some(?) of the Parts
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
A circle touches the lines OA, OB and AB where OA and OB are perpendicular. Show that the diameter of the circle is equal to the perimeter of the triangle
Semi-square
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
What is the ratio of the area of a square inscribed in a semicircle to the area of the square inscribed in the entire circle?
Squaring the Circle
Age 11 to 14 Challenge Level:
Bluey-green, white and transparent squares with a few odd bits of shapes around the perimeter. But, how many squares are there of each type in the complete circle? Study the picture and make. . . .
What's Inside/outside/under the Box?
Age 7 to 14
This article describes investigations that offer opportunities for children to think differently, and pose their own questions, about shapes.
Quadarc
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
Given a square ABCD of sides 10 cm, and using the corners as centres, construct four quadrants with radius 10 cm each inside the square. The four arcs intersect at P, Q, R and S. Find the. . . .
Curvy Areas
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
Have a go at creating these images based on circles. What do you notice about the areas of the different sections?
Trapezium Four
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
The diagonals of a trapezium divide it into four parts. Can you create a trapezium where three of those parts are equal in area?
Track Design
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
Where should runners start the 200m race so that they have all run the same distance by the finish?
From All Corners
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
Straight lines are drawn from each corner of a square to the mid points of the opposite sides. Express the area of the octagon that is formed at the centre as a fraction of the area of the square.
Gym Bag
Age 11 to 16 Challenge Level:
Can Jo make a gym bag for her trainers from the piece of fabric she has?
LOGO Challenge 6 - Triangles and Stars
Age 11 to 16 Challenge Level:
Recreating the designs in this challenge requires you to break a problem down into manageable chunks and use the relationships between triangles and hexagons. An exercise in detail and elegance.
LOGO Challenge 11 - More on Circles
Age 11 to 16 Challenge Level:
Thinking of circles as polygons with an infinite number of sides - but how does this help us with our understanding of the circumference of circle as pi x d? This challenge investigates. . . .
Circle Packing
Age 14 to 16 Challenge Level:
Equal circles can be arranged so that each circle touches four or six others. What percentage of the plane is covered by circles in each packing pattern? ...
LOGO Challenge 12 - Concentric Circles
Age 11 to 16 Challenge Level:
Can you reproduce the design comprising a series of concentric circles? Test your understanding of the realtionship betwwn the circumference and diameter of a circle.
NRICH is part of the family of activities in the Millennium Mathematics Project.