For fun: Puzzle of the Month January 2015

Everything Must GoIn a sale, everything is 10% off the normal price.

A coat costs £90.00 in the sale.

What was the normal price of the coat?

 

 

This is just for fun – the answer will be revealed next month…

For Everyone–A nice game for practising multiplication tables

bbc-tables-gameThis simple (but noisy) game from BBC Skillswise for practising multiplication tables is always popular with students, although it is actually from a site aimed at adult learners.

I like this because it is offering practice rather than a test – the game shows you a question or an answer and you have to find it on the tables square. Matching the answer to a question is a nice way to practise multiplication tables.

It’s good fun too!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/game/ma13tabl-game-tables-grid-find

For fun: Futoshiki puzzles

futoshikiI love number puzzles. On Saturdays I treat myself to a lie in with the newspaper, but I have to confess that I don’t read much of the paper — my Saturday morning treat involves doing the puzzles.

Futoshiki was one of my favourites, but it no longer appears in my newspaper, so I was pleased to find this website, which generates Futoshiki puzzles of various sizes and levels of difficulty.

The basic idea is simple: if you are solving a 5 x 5 grid, you have to make sure that the digits 1 – 5 appear in each row and each column. You also have to make sure that the inequality symbols are correct, so 3 < 4 is fine, but 3 < 1 is not correct.

Seems simple? Why not give it a try?

http://www.futoshiki.org/

A bit of housekeeping

Dustpan KittyFirstly, my apologies to anyone who tried to use this site in the last couple of weeks and found it difficult to navigate. An automatic update left me with no buttons on the front page, no menu, no header and various other problems. Since I’ve been a bit busy and haven’t looked at the site, I didn’t notice that there was a problem. Sorry about that.

I’ve fixed most of the major problems now, but I’m still in the process of sorting some of those things out. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible!

I’ve also been getting rid of some pages. The old version of this site has hardly been used in the last 3 years, so it’s finally getting deleted, along with some old class sites that were also no longer being accessed.

Update 30th December 2014: I think I’ve now fixed all the problems, so everything should be working again – but please let me know if I’ve missed anything.

 

Photo: Dustpan Kitty by Juco on Flickr. Used under Creative Commons Licence.

Oh no, I’ve been CAPTCHAed!

CAPTCHA InsanityI really detest CAPTCHAs. In case you don’t know, CAPTCHAs are those annoying little questions that you get asked online, in which you get shown two totally illegible words and have to work out what on Earth they say and type in the answer.

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve found myself shouting with frustration, whilst peering at blurry images of made-up words that I have to decipher, just so I can leave a comment somewhere or submit a simple form. CAPTCHAs are a Very Bad Thing. As I said, I really detest them – and I’m sure that you dislike them just as much as I do.

So why do we have these CAPTCHAs that no one likes?

Unfortunately, there is something worse than a CAPTCHA. Actually there are many things that are worse than a CAPTCHA, but the one I’m going to tell you about is called a spambot. A spambot is a nasty little computer programme that pretends to be a real person. Some of these nasty little spambots leaves comments on websites. Unlike the comments left by real people, the comments left by spambots are just junk: some are simply strings of random words, others are adverts for boots, coats, charms, dodgy pharmaceuticals and far worse things that I would rather not mention.

The spambots have been doing their worst on this site for a long time now. There’s a magnificent plugin called Akismet that does a fantastic job of catching most of the spam comments that get left, but I still had many thousands of spam comments being left here every single day. And it was getting worse. Over the last few weeks, the spam comments were coming in faster than I could delete them. It was slowing the site down and had got to the stage where dealing with it was becoming a major admin job.

Yes, you can guess where this is going.

I’m sorry, I truly am, but the only way I could stop the overwhelming deluge of spam comments was to install a CAPTCHA on this site. I’ve tried to make it as painless as possible – there will be no blurry made up words to decipher. If you wish to leave a comment you will be asked to solve a simple addition or multiplication question. Well, this is a maths site.

I hope it works. If you have strong opinions, or suggestions for a better solution, please leave a comment (yes, yes, I know) or contact me via email. I’ll be very happy to hear from you.

 

Photo: CAPTCHA Insanity by Jill on Flickr. Used under Creative Commons Licence.

Oh no, I’ve been CAPTCHAed!

CAPTCHA InsanityI really detest CAPTCHAs. In case you don’t know, CAPTCHAs are those annoying little questions that you get asked online, in which you get shown two totally illegible words and have to work out what on Earth they say and type in the answer.

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve found myself shouting with frustration, whilst peering at blurry images of made-up words that I have to decipher, just so I can leave a comment somewhere or submit a simple form. CAPTCHAs are a Very Bad Thing. As I said, I really detest them – and I’m sure that you dislike them just as much as I do.

So why do we have these CAPTCHAs that no one likes?

Unfortunately, there is something worse than a CAPTCHA. Actually there are many things that are worse than a CAPTCHA, but the one I’m going to tell you about is called a spambot. A spambot is a nasty little computer programme that pretends to be a real person. Some of these nasty little spambots leaves comments on websites. Unlike the comments left by real people, the comments left by spambots are just junk: some are simply strings of random words, others are adverts for boots, coats, charms, dodgy pharmaceuticals and far worse things that I would rather not mention.

The spambots have been doing their worst on this site for a long time now. There’s a magnificent plugin called Akismet that does a fantastic job of catching most of the spam comments that get left, but I still had many thousands of spam comments being left here every single day. And it was getting worse. Over the last few weeks, the spam comments were coming in faster than I could delete them. It was slowing the site down and had got to the stage where dealing with it was becoming a major admin job.

Yes, you can guess where this is going.

I’m sorry, I truly am, but the only way I could stop the overwhelming deluge of spam comments was to install a CAPTCHA on this site. I’ve tried to make it as painless as possible – there will be no blurry made up words to decipher. If you wish to leave a comment you will be asked to solve a simple addition or multiplication question. Well, this is a maths site.

I hope it works. If you have strong opinions, or suggestions for a better solution, please leave a comment (yes, yes, I know) or contact me via email. I’ll be very happy to hear from you.

 

Photo: CAPTCHA Insanity by Jill on Flickr. Used under Creative Commons Licence.

Good luck!

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.

attributed to Seneca (via Lifehacker)

How true. I’d like to wish the best of luck to everyone who is taking GCSE Mathematics exams this week.

Thought for the week

Regret for wasted time is more wasted time.

Mason Cooley (via Lifehacker)

The new school year is about to start – welcome back! I hope everyone had a relaxing and enjoyable summer holiday and that you were able to spend the time doing things that you enjoy and value.

Are you ready for the new school year?

Astronomical measurement

Ever wondered how scientists can measure the distances between stars? Here’s a nice video from Royal Observatory Greenwich explaining how it’s done:

Measuring the Universe from Royal Observatory Greenwich on Vimeo.

Easter Egg Hunt 2012

Easter Egg

Do you like puzzles?

You might like to try the MoreThanMaths.com Easter Egg Hunt.

‘Hidden’ on this website are a dozen pictures of Easter eggs like this one. When you find an egg picture, click on it to reveal a puzzle or a problem to solve.

How many eggs can you find? How many puzzles can you solve?

 

 

Information for Y7 and Y8 students at Dronfield Henry Fanshawe School:

I am running a competition for Y7 and Y8 students at Dronfield Henry Fanshawe School.

The prizes are Easter Eggs.

If you can find and solve some of the puzzles in the MoreThanMaths.com Easter Egg Hunt you might be one of this year’s winners – there are lots of eggs to be won!

Get an entry form from your maths teacher, or download one by clicking here.  You will need to hand your completed entry form in to Ms Lindemann by 3:30pm on Friday 23rd March.

You don’t have to solve every puzzle to win a prize. There are prizes for the best entries from each year group, plus lots of prizes for runners up.

 

Information for students at other schools:

Anyone can try the Easter Egg Hunt for fun, but you won’t win a prize unless your school has decided to organise a competition.

 

Information for teachers:

There is some information for teachers here.

Update:

Easter is over, the egg hunt is finished – I expect the prizes have been eaten! I hope you enjoyed taking part.

I’ve now removed the eggs that were ‘hidden’ on this site. If you want to try the puzzles just for fun, use these links: