A combination mechanism for a safe comprises thirty-two tumblers
numbered from one to thirty-two in such a way that the numbers in
each wheel total 132... Could you open the safe?
Whenever two chameleons of different colours meet they change
colour to the third colour. Describe the shortest sequence of
meetings in which all the chameleons change to green if you start
with 12. . . .
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?
This challenge is to make up YOUR OWN alphanumeric. Each letter
represents a digit and where the same letter appears more than once
it must represent the same digit each time.
If you take a three by three square on a 1-10 addition square and
multiply the diagonally opposite numbers together, what is the
difference between these products. Why?
Find the number which has 8 divisors, such that the product of the
divisors is 331776.
This package contains a collection of problems from the NRICH
website that could be suitable for students who have a good
understanding of Factors and Multiples and who feel ready to take
on some. . . .
Investigate $1^n + 19^n + 20^n + 51^n + 57^n + 80^n + 82^n $ and $2^n + 12^n + 31^n + 40^n + 69^n + 71^n + 85^n$ for different values of n.
The number 12 = 2^2 × 3 has 6 factors. What is the smallest natural number with exactly 36 factors?
My two digit number is special because adding the sum of its digits to the product of its digits gives me my original number. What could my number be?
Suppose you had to begin the never ending task of writing out the
natural numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.... and so on. What would be the
1000th digit you would write down.
This article gives you a few ideas for understanding the Got It! game and how you might find a winning strategy.
Find out about palindromic numbers by reading this article.
The number 10112359550561797752808988764044943820224719 is called a
'slippy number' because, when the last digit 9 is moved to the
front, the new number produced is the slippy number multiplied by
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" .
This article explains how credit card numbers are defined and the check digit serves to verify their accuracy.
What would you do if your teacher asked you add all the numbers from 1 to 100? Find out how Carl Gauss responded when he was asked to do just that.
This task depends on learners sharing reasoning, listening to
opinions, reflecting and pulling ideas together.
Many numbers can be expressed as the sum of two or more consecutive integers. For example, 15=7+8 and 10=1+2+3+4. Can you say which numbers can be expressed in this way?
This investigation is about happy numbers in the World of the Octopus where all numbers are written in base 8 ... Find all the fixed points and cycles for the happy number sequences in base 8.
Can you work out how many of each kind of pencil this student
Can you find any perfect numbers? Read this article to find out more...
Is there an efficient way to work out how many factors a large number has?
Helen made the conjecture that "every multiple of six has more
factors than the two numbers either side of it". Is this conjecture
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. . . .
How many six digit numbers are there which DO NOT contain a 5?
How many positive integers less than or equal to 4000 can be
written down without using the digits 7, 8 or 9?
Visitors to Earth from the distant planet of Zub-Zorna were amazed
when they found out that when the digits in this multiplication
were reversed, the answer was the same! Find a way to explain. . . .
How many zeros are there at the end of the number which is the
product of first hundred positive integers?
Find some triples of whole numbers a, b and c such that a^2 + b^2 + c^2 is a multiple of 4. Is it necessarily the case that a, b and c must all be even? If so, can you explain why?
Imagine a machine with four coloured lights which respond to different rules. Can you find the smallest possible number which will make all four colours light up?
Explain why the arithmetic sequence 1, 14, 27, 40, ... contains many terms of the form 222...2 where only the digit 2 appears.
Problem one was solved by 70% of the pupils. Problem 2 was solved
by 60% of them. Every pupil solved at least one of the problems.
Nine pupils solved both problems. How many pupils took the exam?
Complete the following expressions so that each one gives a four
digit number as the product of two two digit numbers and uses the
digits 1 to 8 once and only once.
Choose four consecutive whole numbers. Multiply the first and last numbers together. Multiply the middle pair together. What do you notice?
There are some water lilies in a lake. The area that they cover doubles in size every day. After 17 days the whole lake is covered. How long did it take them to cover half the lake?
Tim Rowland introduces irrational numbers
Work out how to light up the single light. What's the rule?
Take three whole numbers. The differences between them give you
three new numbers. Find the differences between the new numbers and
keep repeating this. What happens?
Try to solve this very difficult problem and then study our two suggested solutions. How would you use your knowledge to try to solve variants on the original problem?
Charlie has made a Magic V. Can you use his example to make some more? And how about Magic Ls, Ns and Ws?
N people visit their friends staying N kilometres along the coast.
Some walk along the cliff path at N km an hour, the rest go by car.
How long is the road?
Can you make a hypothesis to explain these ancient numbers?
How many pairs of numbers can you find that add up to a multiple of 11? Do you notice anything interesting about your results?
Sets of integers like 3, 4, 5 are called Pythagorean Triples, because they could be the lengths of the sides of a right-angled triangle. Can you find any more?
The diagram illustrates the formula: 1 + 3 + 5 + ... + (2n - 1) = nĀ² Use the diagram to show that any odd number is the difference of two squares.
A and B are two interlocking cogwheels having p teeth and q teeth respectively. One tooth on B is painted red. Find the values of p and q for which the red tooth on B contacts every gap on the. . . .
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
Find the five distinct digits N, R, I, C and H in the following
Show that 8778, 10296 and 13530 are three triangular numbers and that they form a Pythagorean triple.