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Knights Moving

Age 16 to 18
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow starYellow star
  • Problem
  • Getting Started
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This is the sort of problem that needs a lot of thinking time.

Present it and leave it for a week or so before returning to it ...

If no one has made much progress - what have they managed to do?

At some stage it may be worth mentioning that the solution requires more than 20 moves.

What recording methods have people come up with?

Then the big question:

How can you know you have managed to swap the knights in the minimum number of moves? This will certainly need a convincing recording system.

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A Knight's Journey

This article looks at knight's moves on a chess board and introduces you to the idea of vectors and vector addition.

Footprints

Make a footprint pattern using only reflections.

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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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