There are six numbers written in five different scripts. Can you sort out which is which?
Exploring the structure of a number square: how quickly can you put the number tiles in the right place on the grid?
You have two sets of the digits 0 – 9. Can you arrange these in the five boxes to make four-digit numbers as close to the target numbers as possible?
Number problems for inquiring primary learners.
This is a game in which your counters move in a spiral round the snail's shell. It is about understanding tens and units.
Each child in Class 3 took four numbers out of the bag. Who had
made the highest even number?
Can you replace the letters with numbers? Is there only one
solution in each case?
Four of these clues are needed to find the chosen number on this
grid and four are true but do nothing to help in finding the
number. Can you sort out the clues and find the number?
A church hymn book contains 700 hymns. The numbers of the hymns are
displayed by combining special small single-digit boards. What is
the minimum number of small boards that is needed?
Which is quicker, counting up to 30 in ones or counting up to 300 in tens? Why?
Number problems at primary level that require careful consideration.
Some Games That May Be Nice or Nasty for an adult and child. Use your knowledge of place value to beat your opponent.
Becky created a number plumber which multiplies by 5 and subtracts
4. What do you notice about the numbers that it produces? Can you
explain your findings?
This multiplication uses each of the digits 0 - 9 once and once only. Using the information given, can you replace the stars in the calculation with figures?
A school song book contains 700 songs. The numbers of the songs are displayed by combining special small single-digit boards. What is the minimum number of small boards that is needed?
Can you arrange the digits 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 into three 3-digit
numbers such that their total is close to 1500?
What do the digits in the number fifteen add up to? How many other
numbers have digits with the same total but no zeros?
In the multiplication calculation, some of the digits have been replaced by letters and others by asterisks. Can you reconstruct the original multiplication?
Start by putting one million (1 000 000) into the display of your
calculator. Can you reduce this to 7 using just the 7 key and add,
subtract, multiply, divide and equals as many times as you like?
Can you complete this calculation by filling in the missing numbers? In how many different ways can you do it?
How many positive integers less than or equal to 4000 can be
written down without using the digits 7, 8 or 9?
The letters in the following addition sum represent the digits 1
... 9. If A=3 and D=2, what number is represented by "CAYLEY"?
Have a go at balancing this equation. Can you find different ways of doing it?
Find out what a Deca Tree is and then work out how many leaves
there will be after the woodcutter has cut off a trunk, a branch, a
twig and a leaf.
In this 100 square, look at the green square which contains the numbers 2, 3, 12 and 13. What is the sum of the numbers that are diagonally opposite each other? What do you notice?
How many six digit numbers are there which DO NOT contain a 5?
There are nasty versions of this dice game but we'll start with the nice ones...
Follow the clues to find the mystery number.
Number problems at primary level to work on with others.
Number problems at primary level that may require determination.
Who said that adding couldn't be fun?
Can you work out some different ways to balance this equation?
What is the sum of all the digits in all the integers from one to
Can you substitute numbers for the letters in these sums?
Dicey Operations for an adult and child. Can you get close to 1000 than your partner?
Find the values of the nine letters in the sum: FOOT + BALL = GAME
When the number x 1 x x x is multiplied by 417 this gives the
answer 9 x x x 0 5 7. Find the missing digits, each of which is
represented by an "x" .
Consider all of the five digit numbers which we can form using only
the digits 2, 4, 6 and 8. If these numbers are arranged in
ascending order, what is the 512th number?
The Scot, John Napier, invented these strips about 400 years ago to
help calculate multiplication and division. Can you work out how to
use Napier's bones to find the answer to these multiplications?
Replace each letter with a digit to make this addition correct.
Amazing as it may seem the three fives remaining in the following
`skeleton' are sufficient to reconstruct the entire long division
Choose two digits and arrange them to make two double-digit
numbers. Now add your double-digit numbers. Now add your single
digit numbers. Divide your double-digit answer by your single-digit
answer. . . .
Choose four different digits from 1-9 and put one in each box so that the resulting four two-digit numbers add to a total of 100.
When asked how old she was, the teacher replied: My age in years is
not prime but odd and when reversed and added to my age you have a
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.
Explore the relationship between simple linear functions and their
This 100 square jigsaw is written in code. It starts with 1 and ends with 100. Can you build it up?
The number 3723(in base 10) is written as 123 in another base. What
is that base?
Watch our videos of multiplication methods that you may not have met before. Can you make sense of them?
There are two forms of counting on Vuvv - Zios count in base 3 and
Zepts count in base 7. One day four of these creatures, two Zios
and two Zepts, sat on the summit of a hill to count the legs of. . . .