Mr McGregor has a magic potting shed. Overnight, the number of
plants in it doubles. He'd like to put the same number of plants in
each of three gardens, planting one garden each day. Can he do it?
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 smallest whole number which, when mutiplied by 7, gives a
product consisting entirely of ones.
A student in a maths class was trying to get some information from
her teacher. She was given some clues and then the teacher ended by
saying, "Well, how old are they?"
Arrange the four number cards on the grid, according to the rules, to make a diagonal, vertical or horizontal line.
Given the products of adjacent cells, can you complete this Sudoku?
Five numbers added together in pairs produce: 0, 2, 4, 4, 6, 8, 9, 11, 13, 15 What are the five numbers?
A mathematician goes into a supermarket and buys four items. Using
a calculator she multiplies the cost instead of adding them. How
can her answer be the same as the total at the till?
The number of plants in Mr McGregor's magic potting shed increases
overnight. He'd like to put the same number of plants in each of
his gardens, planting one garden each day. How can he do it?
Find the values of the nine letters in the sum: FOOT + BALL = GAME
Ben passed a third of his counters to Jack, Jack passed a quarter
of his counters to Emma and Emma passed a fifth of her counters to
Ben. After this they all had the same number of counters.
Given the products of diagonally opposite cells - can you complete this Sudoku?
A cinema has 100 seats. Show how it is possible to sell exactly 100 tickets and take exactly £100 if the prices are £10 for adults, 50p for pensioners and 10p for children.
Countries from across the world competed in a sports tournament. Can you devise an efficient strategy to work out the order in which they finished?
This cube has ink on each face which leaves marks on paper as it is rolled. Can you work out what is on each face and the route it has taken?
There are nine teddies in Teddy Town - three red, three blue and three yellow. There are also nine houses, three of each colour. Can you put them on the map of Teddy Town according to the rules?
Place the 16 different combinations of cup/saucer in this 4 by 4 arrangement so that no row or column contains more than one cup or saucer of the same colour.
This challenging activity involves finding different ways to distribute fifteen items among four sets, when the sets must include three, four, five and six items.
This challenge extends the Plants investigation so now four or more children are involved.
Rather than using the numbers 1-9, this sudoku uses the nine
different letters used to make the words "Advent Calendar".
This tricky challenge asks you to find ways of going across rectangles, going through exactly ten squares.
Different combinations of the weights available allow you to make different totals. Which totals can you make?
This Sudoku puzzle can be solved with the help of small clue-numbers on the border lines between pairs of neighbouring squares of the grid.
The letters of the word ABACUS have been arranged in the shape of a
triangle. How many different ways can you find to read the word
ABACUS from this triangular pattern?
Bellringers have a special way to write down the patterns they
ring. Learn about these patterns and draw some of your own.
First Connect Three game for an adult and child. Use the dice numbers and either addition or subtraction to get three numbers in a straight line.
A challenging activity focusing on finding all possible ways of stacking rods.
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?
A Sudoku that uses transformations as supporting clues.
Play the divisibility game to create numbers in which the first two digits make a number divisible by 2, the first three digits make a number divisible by 3...
A Latin square of order n is an array of n symbols in which each symbol occurs exactly once in each row and exactly once in each column.
If you have only 40 metres of fencing available, what is the maximum area of land you can fence off?
Find out about Magic Squares in this article written for students. Why are they magic?!
The puzzle can be solved by finding the values of the unknown digits (all indicated by asterisks) in the squares of the $9\times9$ grid.
Can you coach your rowing eight to win?
Two sudokus in one. Challenge yourself to make the necessary
An extra constraint means this Sudoku requires you to think in
diagonals as well as horizontal and vertical lines and boxes of
There is a long tradition of creating mazes throughout history and across the world. This article gives details of mazes you can visit and those that you can tackle on paper.
You are given the Lowest Common Multiples of sets of digits. Find
the digits and then solve the Sudoku.
A few extra challenges set by some young NRICH members.
This pair of linked Sudokus matches letters with numbers and hides a seasonal greeting. Can you find it?
A Sudoku with clues as ratios.
Each clue number in this sudoku is the product of the two numbers in adjacent cells.
Whenever a monkey has peaches, he always keeps a fraction of them each day, gives the rest away, and then eats one. How long could he make his peaches last for?
Make your own double-sided magic square. But can you complete both
sides once you've made the pieces?
This Sudoku, based on differences. Using the one clue number can you find the solution?
Find all the ways of placing the numbers 1 to 9 on a W shape, with
3 numbers on each leg, so that each set of 3 numbers has the same
A Sudoku with clues given as sums of entries.
Here is a Sudoku with a difference! Use information about lowest common multiples to help you solve it.