# Resources tagged with: Mathematical reasoning & proof

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### There are 160 results

Broad Topics > Thinking Mathematically > Mathematical reasoning & proof

### Chocolate Maths

##### Age 11 to 14Challenge 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. . . .

### To Prove or Not to Prove

##### Age 14 to 18

A serious but easily readable discussion of proof in mathematics with some amusing stories and some interesting examples.

### Proofs with Pictures

##### Age 14 to 18

Some diagrammatic 'proofs' of algebraic identities and inequalities.

### Multiplication Square

##### Age 14 to 16Challenge Level

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

### One O Five

##### Age 11 to 14Challenge 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. . . .

### Clocked

##### Age 11 to 14Challenge 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?

### Janine's Conjecture

##### Age 14 to 16Challenge Level

Janine noticed, while studying some cube numbers, that if you take three consecutive whole numbers and multiply them together and then add the middle number of the three, you get the middle number. . . .

### Top-heavy Pyramids

##### Age 11 to 14Challenge Level

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

### DOTS Division

##### Age 14 to 16Challenge Level

Take any pair of two digit numbers x=ab and y=cd where, without loss of generality, ab > cd . Form two 4 digit numbers r=abcd and s=cdab and calculate: {r^2 - s^2} /{x^2 - y^2}.

### Natural Sum

##### Age 14 to 16Challenge Level

The picture illustrates the sum 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = (4 x 5)/2. Prove the general formula for the sum of the first n natural numbers and the formula for the sum of the cubes of the first n natural. . . .

### Picture Story

##### Age 14 to 16Challenge Level

Can you see how this picture illustrates the formula for the sum of the first six cube numbers?

### Proof: A Brief Historical Survey

##### Age 14 to 18

If you think that mathematical proof is really clearcut and universal then you should read this article.

### Concrete Wheel

##### Age 11 to 14Challenge Level

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

### Disappearing Square

##### Age 11 to 14Challenge 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. . . .

### Postage

##### Age 14 to 16Challenge Level

The country Sixtania prints postage stamps with only three values 6 lucres, 10 lucres and 15 lucres (where the currency is in lucres).Which values cannot be made up with combinations of these postage. . . .

### Cross-country Race

##### Age 14 to 16Challenge Level

Eight children enter the autumn cross-country race at school. How many possible ways could they come in at first, second and third places?

### Eleven

##### Age 11 to 14Challenge Level

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

### Convex Polygons

##### Age 11 to 14Challenge Level

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

### Proof Sorter - Quadratic Equation

##### Age 14 to 18Challenge Level

This is an interactivity in which you have to sort the steps in the completion of the square into the correct order to prove the formula for the solutions of quadratic equations.

### More Mathematical Mysteries

##### Age 11 to 14Challenge Level

Write down a three-digit number Change the order of the digits to get a different number Find the difference between the two three digit numbers Follow the rest of the instructions then try. . . .

### The Genie in the Jar

##### Age 11 to 14Challenge Level

This jar used to hold perfumed oil. It contained enough oil to fill granid silver bottles. Each bottle held enough to fill ozvik golden goblets and each goblet held enough to fill vaswik crystal. . . .

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

##### Age 5 to 18Challenge 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.

### Picturing Pythagorean Triples

##### Age 14 to 18

This article discusses how every Pythagorean triple (a, b, c) can be illustrated by a square and an L shape within another square. You are invited to find some triples for yourself.

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

##### Age 11 to 18Challenge 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. . . .

### Some Circuits in Graph or Network Theory

##### Age 14 to 18

Eulerian and Hamiltonian circuits are defined with some simple examples and a couple of puzzles to illustrate Hamiltonian circuits.

### Gabriel's Problem

##### Age 11 to 14Challenge Level

Gabriel multiplied together some numbers and then erased them. Can you figure out where each number was?

### Advent Calendar 2011 - Secondary

##### Age 11 to 18Challenge Level

Advent Calendar 2011 - a mathematical activity for each day during the run-up to Christmas.

### A Long Time at the Till

##### Age 14 to 18Challenge Level

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?

### Sticky Numbers

##### Age 11 to 14Challenge Level

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

### Breaking the Equation ' Empirical Argument = Proof '

##### Age 7 to 18

This article stems from research on the teaching of proof and offers guidance on how to move learners from focussing on experimental arguments to mathematical arguments and deductive reasoning.

### Iffy Logic

##### Age 14 to 18Challenge Level

Can you rearrange the cards to make a series of correct mathematical statements?

### The Great Weights Puzzle

##### Age 14 to 16Challenge Level

You have twelve weights, one of which is different from the rest. Using just 3 weighings, can you identify which weight is the odd one out, and whether it is heavier or lighter than the rest?

### Seven Squares - Group-worthy Task

##### Age 11 to 14Challenge 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?

### Tourism

##### Age 11 to 14Challenge 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.

### Calendar Capers

##### Age 11 to 14Challenge Level

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

### Konigsberg Plus

##### Age 11 to 14Challenge 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.

### 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.

### More Number Pyramids

##### Age 11 to 14Challenge Level

When number pyramids have a sequence on the bottom layer, some interesting patterns emerge...

### Unit Interval

##### Age 14 to 18Challenge Level

Take any two numbers between 0 and 1. Prove that the sum of the numbers is always less than one plus their product?

### KÃ¶nigsberg

##### Age 11 to 14Challenge 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?

### The Triangle Game

##### Age 11 to 16Challenge Level

Can you discover whether this is a fair game?

### Impossible Sandwiches

##### Age 11 to 18

In this 7-sandwich: 7 1 3 1 6 4 3 5 7 2 4 6 2 5 there are 7 numbers between the 7s, 6 between the 6s etc. The article shows which values of n can make n-sandwiches and which cannot.

### Magic Squares II

##### Age 14 to 18

An article which gives an account of some properties of magic squares.

### Largest Product

##### Age 11 to 14Challenge Level

Which set of numbers that add to 10 have the largest product?

##### Age 7 to 14Challenge Level

I added together some of my neighbours' house numbers. Can you explain the patterns I noticed?

### Dicing with Numbers

##### Age 11 to 14Challenge 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?

### AMGM

##### Age 14 to 16Challenge Level

Can you use the diagram to prove the AM-GM inequality?

### 9 Weights

##### Age 11 to 14Challenge 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?

### Flight of the Flibbins

##### Age 11 to 14Challenge 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. . . .
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