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For younger learners

  • Early Years Foundation Stage

Pied Piper

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

On Monday the Pied Piper caught 1000 rats in a city.
On Tuesday he caught 10% fewer rats than on Monday.
On Wednesday he caught 20% more than on Tuesday.
On Thursday he caught 30% fewer than on Wednesday.
On Friday he rested.

How many rats did he catch in total that week?

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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Round and Round

Prove that the shaded area of the semicircle is equal to the area of the inner circle.

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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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