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Susie sent in a table to show her solution to this problem:
Numbers that can be squares | Numbers that can be sticks | Numbers that can be rectangles | Numbers that can only be sticks |
1 | 2 | 6 | 2 |
4 | 3 | 8 | 3 |
9 | 4 | 10 | 5 |
16 | 5 | 12 | 7 |
6 | 14 | 11 | |
7 | 15 | 13 | |
8 | 16 | 17 | |
9 | 18 | 19 | |
10 | 20 | ||
11 | |||
12 | |||
13 | |||
14 | |||
15 | |||
16 | |||
17 | |||
18 | |||
19 | |||
20 |
Susie also thought:
Children from Rampart School in the US sent a very full solution. They said:
The prime numbers from 1 to 20 (2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, and 19) can only be sticks. Each prime number has only two factors, 1 and itself, so none of them can make rectangles. They can only make sticks of dimension 1 \times the prime number.
The numbers that are neither prime nor square (6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 15, 18, 20) can make rectangles because they all have factors other than 1 and themselves. For example, 20 has the factors 1 and 20, 2 and 10, and 4 and 5.
This leaves the square numbers that, subsequently, are the only numbers that can form the squares, for obvious reasons. Every square number can have the form n \times n, which also relates to the dimensions of the square.
So, we notice that only square numbers can form squares; prime numbers form sticks; and the composite, non-square numbers form rectangles.
Thank you also to Jack from Allerton Grange, Sophie from Belgium and Nathan from Rushmore Primary who sent in well-explained solutions.