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#### Resources tagged with Mathematical reasoning & proof similar to Famous Five:

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### There are 98 results

Broad Topics > Using, Applying and Reasoning about Mathematics > Mathematical reasoning & proof

### 9 Weights

##### Stage: 3 Challenge Level:

You have been given nine weights, one of which is slightly heavier than the rest. Can you work out which weight is heavier in just two weighings of the balance?

### Online

##### Stage: 2 and 3 Challenge Level:

A game for 2 players that can be played online. Players take it in turns to select a word from the 9 words given. The aim is to select all the occurrences of the same letter.

### Sticky Numbers

##### Stage: 3 Challenge Level:

Can you arrange the numbers 1 to 17 in a row so that each adjacent pair adds up to a square number?

### Flight of the Flibbins

##### Stage: 3 Challenge Level:

Blue Flibbins are so jealous of their red partners that they will not leave them on their own with any other bue Flibbin. What is the quickest way of getting the five pairs of Flibbins safely to. . . .

##### Stage: 1 and 2 Challenge Level:

Who said that adding couldn't be fun?

### Clocked

##### Stage: 3 Challenge Level:

Is it possible to rearrange the numbers 1,2......12 around a clock face in such a way that every two numbers in adjacent positions differ by any of 3, 4 or 5 hours?

### Shuffle Shriek

##### Stage: 3 Challenge Level:

Can you find all the 4-ball shuffles?

### Take Three Numbers

##### Stage: 2 Challenge Level:

What happens when you add three numbers together? Will your answer be odd or even? How do you know?

### Pattern of Islands

##### Stage: 3 Challenge Level:

In how many distinct ways can six islands be joined by bridges so that each island can be reached from every other island...

### Convex Polygons

##### Stage: 3 Challenge Level:

Show that among the interior angles of a convex polygon there cannot be more than three acute angles.

### Tourism

##### Stage: 3 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.

### Concrete Wheel

##### Stage: 3 Challenge Level:

A huge wheel is rolling past your window. What do you see?

### Konigsberg Plus

##### Stage: 3 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.

### Triangle Inequality

##### Stage: 3 Challenge Level:

ABC is an equilateral triangle and P is a point in the interior of the triangle. We know that AP = 3cm and BP = 4cm. Prove that CP must be less than 10 cm.

### Top-heavy Pyramids

##### Stage: 3 Challenge Level:

Use the numbers in the box below to make the base of a top-heavy pyramid whose top number is 200.

### Volume of a Pyramid and a Cone

##### Stage: 3

These formulae are often quoted, but rarely proved. In this article, we derive the formulae for the volumes of a square-based pyramid and a cone, using relatively simple mathematical concepts.

### Dicing with Numbers

##### Stage: 3 Challenge Level:

In how many ways can you arrange three dice side by side on a surface so that the sum of the numbers on each of the four faces (top, bottom, front and back) is equal?

### Always, Sometimes or Never?

##### Stage: 1 and 2 Challenge Level:

Are these statements relating to odd and even numbers always true, sometimes true or never true?

### Always the Same

##### Stage: 3 Challenge Level:

Arrange the numbers 1 to 16 into a 4 by 4 array. Choose a number. Cross out the numbers on the same row and column. Repeat this process. Add up you four numbers. Why do they always add up to 34?

### Children at Large

##### Stage: 3 Challenge Level:

There are four children in a family, two girls, Kate and Sally, and two boys, Tom and Ben. How old are the children?

### Multiplication Square

##### Stage: 3 Challenge Level:

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

### Eleven

##### Stage: 3 Challenge Level:

Replace each letter with a digit to make this addition correct.

### Königsberg

##### Stage: 3 Challenge Level:

Can you cross each of the seven bridges that join the north and south of the river to the two islands, once and once only, without retracing your steps?

### Three Neighbours

##### Stage: 2 Challenge Level:

Look at three 'next door neighbours' amongst the counting numbers. Add them together. What do you notice?

### The Triangle Game

##### Stage: 3 and 4 Challenge Level:

Can you discover whether this is a fair game?

### Disappearing Square

##### Stage: 3 Challenge Level:

Do you know how to find the area of a triangle? You can count the squares. What happens if we turn the triangle on end? Press the button and see. Try counting the number of units in the triangle now. . . .

### Tessellating Hexagons

##### Stage: 3 Challenge Level:

Which hexagons tessellate?

### Problem Solving, Using and Applying and Functional Mathematics

##### Stage: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 Challenge Level:

Problem solving is at the heart of the NRICH site. All the problems give learners opportunities to learn, develop or use mathematical concepts and skills. Read here for more information.

### Hockey

##### Stage: 3 Challenge Level:

After some matches were played, most of the information in the table containing the results of the games was accidentally deleted. What was the score in each match played?

### Cows and Sheep

##### Stage: 2 Challenge Level:

Use your logical reasoning to work out how many cows and how many sheep there are in each field.

### Pyramids

##### Stage: 3 Challenge Level:

What are the missing numbers in the pyramids?

### Aba

##### Stage: 3 Challenge Level:

In the following sum the letters A, B, C, D, E and F stand for six distinct digits. Find all the ways of replacing the letters with digits so that the arithmetic is correct.

### Go Forth and Generalise

##### Stage: 3

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.

### Not Necessarily in That Order

##### Stage: 3 Challenge Level:

Baker, Cooper, Jones and Smith are four people whose occupations are teacher, welder, mechanic and programmer, but not necessarily in that order. What is each person’s occupation?

### Chocolate Maths

##### Stage: 3 Challenge Level:

Pick the number of times a week that you eat chocolate. This number must be more than one but less than ten. Multiply this number by 2. Add 5 (for Sunday). Multiply by 50... Can you explain why it. . . .

### Seven Squares - Group-worthy Task

##### Stage: 3 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?

### One O Five

##### Stage: 3 Challenge Level:

You can work out the number someone else is thinking of as follows. Ask a friend to think of any natural number less than 100. Then ask them to tell you the remainders when this number is divided by. . . .

### Tis Unique

##### Stage: 3 Challenge Level:

This addition sum uses all ten digits 0, 1, 2...9 exactly once. Find the sum and show that the one you give is the only possibility.

##### Stage: 3 Challenge Level:

A little bit of algebra explains this 'magic'. Ask a friend to pick 3 consecutive numbers and to tell you a multiple of 3. Then ask them to add the four numbers and multiply by 67, and to tell you. . . .

### Football Champs

##### Stage: 3 Challenge Level:

Three teams have each played two matches. The table gives the total number points and goals scored for and against each team. Fill in the table and find the scores in the three matches.

### How Many Dice?

##### Stage: 3 Challenge Level:

A standard die has the numbers 1, 2 and 3 are opposite 6, 5 and 4 respectively so that opposite faces add to 7? If you make standard dice by writing 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 on blank cubes you will find. . . .

### What Do You Need?

##### Stage: 2 Challenge Level:

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?

### Take One Example

##### Stage: 1 and 2

This article introduces the idea of generic proof for younger children and illustrates how one example can offer a proof of a general result through unpacking its underlying structure.

### Calendar Capers

##### Stage: 3 Challenge Level:

Choose any three by three square of dates on a calendar page...

### 1 Step 2 Step

##### Stage: 3 Challenge Level:

Liam's house has a staircase with 12 steps. He can go down the steps one at a time or two at time. In how many different ways can Liam go down the 12 steps?

### Take Three from Five

##### Stage: 3 and 4 Challenge Level:

Caroline and James pick sets of five numbers. Charlie chooses three of them that add together to make a multiple of three. Can they stop him?

### Happy Numbers

##### Stage: 3 Challenge Level:

Take any whole number between 1 and 999, add the squares of the digits to get a new number. Make some conjectures about what happens in general.

### Yih or Luk Tsut K'i or Three Men's Morris

##### Stage: 3, 4 and 5 Challenge Level:

Some puzzles requiring no knowledge of knot theory, just a careful inspection of the patterns. A glimpse of the classification of knots and a little about prime knots, crossing numbers and. . . .

### Square Subtraction

##### Stage: 2 Challenge Level:

Look at what happens when you take a number, square it and subtract your answer. What kind of number do you get? Can you prove it?

### The Pillar of Chios

##### Stage: 3 Challenge Level:

Semicircles are drawn on the sides of a rectangle ABCD. A circle passing through points ABCD carves out four crescent-shaped regions. Prove that the sum of the areas of the four crescents is equal to. . . .
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