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'Snake Coils' printed from http://nrich.maths.org/
This activity has been particularly created for the most able, and so pupils might be expected to work independently from an adult. So these notes are shorter than usual for our activities.
Why do this problem?
engages the pupils in both a spatial and numerical context. It gives them also the freedom to choose how they go about it - visualising in their head, using paper, string etc. that they have requested and/or making use of a spreadsheet. They can learn a lot from adopting one method and then realising that an alternative method would be
Presented as on the problem page.
Very open questions, like "tell me about this . . . . "
What have you found out so far?
Consider the sizes of the circles as they get smaller and smaller.