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Number Daisy

Age 11 to 14
Challenge Level Yellow star
Secondary curriculum
  • Problem
  • Student Solutions
  • Teachers' Resources

We received lots of excellent solutions to this problem. Well done to students from Raines School, Lancaster Lane School, Risley Primary School, Garden International School, Glan-Y-Mor, Selside School, Kings School, Beijing City International School, Cirencester Kingshill School, Highfields School, Winster C of E School and Balfour Junior School for all finding solutions which give numbers greater than 25.

Alison managed to find numbers 1 to 46 with this daisy: 1 in centre, 2,4,12,19,8 around the edge.

Ria's method for making a daisy with numbers 1 to 28 can be found here.
 
Simon and Will made a daisy with numbers 1 to 37 and explain their method below:

To begin, we used the same flower as NRICH. We put 1 in the middle because we decided that it would be the most used number. We put 2 in next to make 2 and 3. Then we put a 4 in and we could make numbers 5,6,7. We wrote the numbers we could make underneath the flower. We then added 8 to make 8,9,10. We put 8 next to the 2 and we then could make numbers up to 15. We then added 12 and put it next to the 4 to make 16. The 10 was the last number to be added. We added 8 + 10 + 12 + 4 + 2 + 1 to make the biggest number 37. We then tried to make all the numbers in between and it worked.
  
Here are some more solutions.
 
Emma's daisy makes all the numbers 1 to 38:
emma

Tamsin's daisy makes all the numbers from 1 to 40:

 tam
 
Carolyn's daisy makes all the numbers from 1 to 43:
 
 car

Stephen's daisy makes all the numbers from 1 to 45:

ste
Students from Riccarton High School found another daisy that makes all the numbers from 1 to 45:
 ricc
They checked this worked by entering the six numbers in the cells of a spreadsheet and reproduced the numbers in six columns with the total on the right. It was then necessary to go through deleting some numbers on each line to give the totals 1 to 45 as in Ali's solution below:
 
1 21 8 9 2 4 Total
 1                1
        2   2
1       2   3
          4 4
1         4 5
        2 4 6
1        2   4  7
     8        8
1   8       9
       9      10
      9 2   11
1     9 2   12
1   8     4 13
1     9   4 14
      9 2 4 15
1     9 2 4 16
    8 9     17
1   8 9     18
    8 9 2   19
1   8 9 2   20
  21         21
1 21         22
  21     2   23
1 21     2   24
  21       4 25
1 21       4 26
  21     2 4 27
1 21     2 4 28
  21 8       29
  21   9     30
1 21   9     31
  21   9 2   32
1 21   9 2   33
1 21 8     4 34
1 21   9   4 35
  21   9 2 4 36
1 21   9 2 4 37
  21 8 9     38
1 21 8 9     39
  21 8 9 2   40
1 21 8 9 2   41
  21 8 9   4 42
1 21 8 9   4 43
  21 8 9 2 4 44
1 21 8 9 2 4 45


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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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