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Dice Stairs

Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star
  • Problem
  • Student Solutions
  • Teachers' Resources

Well done to everybody who had a go at this problem. Mitch from Australia sent in this picture and explanation:

Hi,

This is my picture for the dice stairs.

I started by building the third stair so the top was 4. Then I made the first stair 2. Then I worked on the second stair to make 3 by rotating the dice.

Good ideas, Mitch! Interestingly, it looks like Mitch has used a mixture of left-handed dice and right-handed dice to build these stairs, but the solution using all one type of dice would be very similar.

Maryam, Zaina, Nasra and Aagesh from Stag Lane Junior School in England also found the solution with 2, 3 and 4 on the top for Challenge 1. They said:

We found 432 on Challenge 1:

For the top numbers 1 on the right side of the two, two 1s on the left side of the 3 tower and two 6s on the right side of it, three 6s on the 4 tower and three 1s on the right side.

Challenge 2:

For this challenge we only add one last tower and the number on the top was 5 the left side was all 1s and the right all 6s.

These are some very clear descriptions - I can see that this would make the tower with 2, 3, 4 and 5 on the top by using 1s and 6s to stick each tower together.

Oli, Fraser, Milo, Joshi, Tallulah, Adam, Noah and Isaac from Copthill Independent School in England sent in these pictures explaining why it isn't possible to make a dice stair with 1, 2 and 3 on the top:
 

They said:

We did go on to explore 10 dice and 15 and decided any set that were starts (involving 1) or ends (involving 6) would not work.

This is very clearly explained! Thank you all for sharing your ideas with us.

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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.

NRICH is part of the family of activities in the Millennium Mathematics Project.

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