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Day of the Triffids

Age 14 to 16
ShortChallenge Level Yellow starYellow star
Secondary curriculum
  • Problem
  • Solutions

Jasmine spends exactly £120 on three types of plants.

Poison ivy plants cost £2 each.
Deadly nightshade plants cost £9 each.
Triffids plants cost £12 each.

She buys twenty plants in total, including at least one of each type.

How many triffids did she buy?
 

If you liked this problem, here is an NRICH task which challenges you to use similar mathematical ideas.  

This problem is taken from the UKMT Mathematical Challenges.
You can find more short problems, arranged by curriculum topic, in our short problems collection.

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Rudolff's Problem

A group of 20 people pay a total of £20 to see an exhibition. The admission price is £3 for men, £2 for women and 50p for children. How many men, women and children are there in the group?

Polycircles

Show that for any triangle it is always possible to construct 3 touching circles with centres at the vertices. Is it possible to construct touching circles centred at the vertices of any polygon?

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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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