Thursday 5 July 2012

Summer Challenges

Fantastic, summer holidays are upon us! Fun, relaxing, resting and more in store. It’s a really long time to go without doing any mathematics and so the following are some suggestions of puzzles, problems and activities you can have a go at to keep your mind active! This has been offered to students at the International School of Toulouse but we would love it if we thought other people were using it too! Even better if some discussion opened up about some of these problems on this blog! Good luck and have great summer!

Games from around the world http://nrich.maths.org/8261 Try playing some of these when you are on the go, in the car or wherever! Strategy games are great brain activity and most of us like a good game.

Challenge area 1 – Logic puzzles

Logic puzzles are a lovely model for mathematics, so much of what happens in this subject boils down to logical deduction. Below is a selection of some great logic problems to challenge you!
If you come across some really good logic puzzles then please share them with us via this blog!

Challenge area 2 – Problems with geometry

You might need a computer with dynamic geometry to have a go at these so maybe it is not so easy on the go but they are great problems!
Please, if you get any good solutions or animations you can share then do so via this blog!

Challenge area 3 – Number problems

Here are some good number problems to work on!
Challenge area 4 – Algebraic Sequences

7 comments:

  1. What about the Rubiks cube?

    ReplyDelete
  2. What about it? Its a great challenge, I've been trying for years but cant get more than two faces...... any advance on that? (of course I haven't googled it yet, that takes all the fun out of it)

    ReplyDelete
  3. My sister went through a phase of constantly doing it and she had this trick where you always have to go one to the left and two to the frint or so.
    Isnt there a bigger one too?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh and i wanted to ask if there was some sort of symmetry the way spiderwebs are constructed?

    ReplyDelete
  5. The NYT asks Is Algebra Necessary? @nytimes http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/29/opinion/sunday/is-algebra-necessary.html?comments#permid=201 … … ´We Want To Know´says YES OF COURSE IT IS!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Mr Noble, have you managed to solve the 'Whose Fish' puzzle?

    ReplyDelete
  7. @-> James Noble. I'm no good at the Rubik's cube. Even the 2x2x2 one, which I thought would be more satisfying, is beyond me! But as for Googling it, I was surprised that there have been developments with the Rubik's cube. "God's Number" was found a couple of years back, and I hadn't heard.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF2J39Xny4Q

    ReplyDelete