There are 232 NRICH Mathematical resources connected to Factors and multiples, you may find related items under Properties of numbers.
Broad Topics > Properties of numbers > Factors and multiples
Can you work out what step size to take to ensure you visit all the dots on the circle?
Can you find a cuboid that has a surface area of exactly 100 square units. Is there more than one? Can you find them all?
Ben, Jack and Emma passed counters to each other and ended with the same number of counters. How many did they start with?
Frances and Rishi were given a bag of lollies. They shared them out evenly and had one left over. How many lollies could there have been in the bag?
Yasmin and Zach have some bears to share. Which numbers of bears can they share so that there are none left over?
There is a clock-face where the numbers have become all mixed up. Can you find out where all the numbers have got to from these ten statements?
Caroline and James pick sets of five numbers. Charlie tries to find three that add together to make a multiple of three. Can they stop him?
Lyndon chose this as one of his favourite problems. It is accessible but needs some careful analysis of what is included and what is not. A systematic approach is really helpful.
Nine squares with side lengths 1, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 14, 15, and 18 cm can be fitted together to form a rectangle. What are the dimensions of the rectangle?
Which is quicker, counting up to 30 in ones or counting up to 300 in tens? Why?
I'm thinking of a number. My number is both a multiple of 5 and a multiple of 6. What could my number be?
Take a complicated fraction with the product of five quartics top and bottom and reduce this to a whole number. This is a numerical example involving some clever algebra.
This article explains various divisibility rules and why they work. An article to read with pencil and paper handy.
A game for two people, or play online. Given a target number, say 23, and a range of numbers to choose from, say 1-4, players take it in turns to add to the running total to hit their target.
Can you make square numbers by adding two prime numbers together?
Arrange the four number cards on the grid, according to the rules, to make a diagonal, vertical or horizontal line.
The items in the shopping basket add and multiply to give the same amount. What could their prices be?
Can you work out the arrangement of the digits in the square so that the given products are correct? The numbers 1 - 9 may be used once and once only.
The discs for this game are kept in a flat square box with a square hole for each. Use the information to find out how many discs of each colour there are in the box.
Can you fill in this table square? The numbers 2 -12 were used to generate it with just one number used twice.
The planet of Vuvv has seven moons. Can you work out how long it is between each super-eclipse?
Norrie sees two lights flash at the same time, then one of them flashes every 4th second, and the other flashes every 5th second. How many times do they flash together during a whole minute?
48 is called an abundant number because it is less than the sum of its factors (without itself). Can you find some more abundant numbers?
On the planet Vuv there are two sorts of creatures. The Zios have 3 legs and the Zepts have 7 legs. The great planetary explorer Nico counted 52 legs. How many Zios and how many Zepts were there?
On a farm there were some hens and sheep. Altogether there were 8 heads and 22 feet. How many hens were there?
Can you produce convincing arguments that a selection of statements about numbers are true?
Play the divisibility game to create numbers in which the first two digits make a number divisible by 2, the first three digits make a number divisible by 3...
Complete the following expressions so that each one gives a four digit number as the product of two two digit numbers and uses the digits 1 to 8 once and only once.
Take any prime number greater than 3 , square it and subtract one. Working on the building blocks will help you to explain what is special about your results.
Using the digits 1 to 9, the number 4396 can be written as the product of two numbers. Can you find the factors?
Is there a relationship between the coordinates of the endpoints of a line and the number of grid squares it crosses?
In a square in which the houses are evenly spaced, numbers 3 and 10 are opposite each other. What is the smallest and what is the largest possible number of houses in the square?
What is the largest number which, when divided into 1905, 2587, 3951, 7020 and 8725 in turn, leaves the same remainder each time?
Three people chose this as a favourite problem. It is the sort of problem that needs thinking time - but once the connection is made it gives access to many similar ideas.
15 = 7 + 8 and 10 = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4. Can you say which numbers can be expressed as the sum of two or more consecutive integers?
Is there an efficient way to work out how many factors a large number has?
Can you create a Latin Square from multiples of a six digit number?
Can you explain the strategy for winning this game with any target?
Find the largest integer which divides every member of the following sequence: 1^5-1, 2^5-2, 3^5-3, ... n^5-n.
Find the smallest numbers a, b, and c such that: a^2 = 2b^3 = 3c^5 What can you say about other solutions to this problem?
Pat counts her sweets in different groups and both times she has some left over. How many sweets could she have had?
Kimie and Sebastian were making sticks from interlocking cubes and lining them up. Can they make their lines the same length? Can they make any other lines?
Andrew decorated 20 biscuits to take to a party. He lined them up and put icing on every second biscuit and different decorations on other biscuits. How many biscuits weren't decorated?
What happens if you join every second point on this circle? How about every third point? Try with different steps and see if you can predict what will happen.
How many different shaped boxes can you design for 36 sweets in one layer? Can you arrange the sweets so that no sweets of the same colour are next to each other in any direction?
Investigate the different shaped bracelets you could make from 18 different spherical beads. How do they compare if you use 24 beads?
Place four pebbles on the sand in the form of a square. Keep adding as few pebbles as necessary to double the area. How many extra pebbles are added each time?