Pebbles

Place four pebbles on the sand in the form of a square. Keep adding as few pebbles as necessary to double the area. How many extra pebbles are added each time?

It Figures

Suppose we allow ourselves to use three numbers less than 10 and multiply them together. How many different products can you find? How do you know you've got them all?

Bracelets

Investigate the different shaped bracelets you could make from 18 different spherical beads. How do they compare if you use 24 beads?

Factors and Multiples Game

Stage: 2 and 3 Challenge Level:

This is a game for two players.

The first player chooses a positive even number that is less than $50$, and crosses it out on the grid.

The second player chooses a number to cross out. The number must be a factor or multiple of the first number.

Players continue to take it in turns to cross out numbers, at each stage choosing a number that is a factor or multiple of the number just crossed out by the other player.

The first person who is unable to cross out a number loses.

Here is an interactive version of the game in which you drag the numbers from the left hand grid and drop them on the right hand grid. Alternatively, click on a number in the left hand grid and it will transport to the earliest empty location in the right hand grid. You can rearrange the numbers in the right hand grid by dragging and dropping them in position. The integer in the top right hand corner grows with the number of factors/multiples you have in a row.

This text is usually replaced by the Flash movie.

An extension to the game, or a suitable activity for just one person, is suggested in the Possible extension in the Teachers' Notes

The NRICH Project aims to enrich the mathematical experiences of all learners. To support this aim, members of the NRICH team work in a wide range of capacities, including providing professional development for teachers wishing to embed rich mathematical tasks into everyday classroom practice. More information on many of our other activities can be found here.
{"extraction_info": {"found_math": true, "script_math_tex": 0, "script_math_asciimath": 0, "math_annotations": 0, "math_alttext": 0, "mathml": 0, "mathjax_tag": 0, "mathjax_inline_tex": 1, "mathjax_display_tex": 0, "mathjax_asciimath": 0, "img_math": 0, "codecogs_latex": 0, "wp_latex": 0, "mimetex.cgi": 0, "/images/math/codecogs": 0, "mathtex.cgi": 0}, "config": {"markdown_headings": false, "markdown_code": true, "boilerplate_config": {"ratio_threshold": 0.18, "absolute_threshold": 10, "end_threshold": 15, "enable": true}, "remove_buttons": true, "remove_image_figures": true, "remove_link_clusters": true, "table_config": {"min_rows": 2, "min_cols": 3, "format": "github"}, "remove_chinese": true, "remove_edit_buttons": true, "extract_latex": true}, "english_confidence": 0.9355258941650391, "perplexity_flag": "middle"}