There are 76 NRICH Mathematical resources connected to Comparing and ordering numbers, you may find related items under Place value and the number system.
Broad Topics > Place value and the number system > Comparing and ordering numbers
Some of the numbers have fallen off Becky's number line. Can you figure out what they were?
Use the interactivities to fill in these Carroll diagrams. How do you know where to place the numbers?
Use the numbers and symbols to make this number sentence correct. How many different ways can you find?
Try some throwing activities and see whether you can throw something as far as the Olympic hammer or discus throwers.
Look at the changes in results on some of the athletics track events at the Olympic Games in 1908 and 1948. Compare the results for 2012.
Look at some of the results from the Olympic Games in the past. How do you compare if you try some similar activities?
This problem is designed to help children to learn, and to use, the two and three times tables.
How would you create the largest possible two-digit even number from the digit I've given you and one of your choice?
Investigate which numbers make these lights come on. What is the smallest number you can find that lights up all the lights?
Mr Gilderdale is playing a game with his class. What rule might he have chosen? How would you test your idea?
Who said that adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing couldn't be fun?
There are nasty versions of this dice game but we'll start with the nice ones...
Use the differences to find the solution to this Sudoku.
These caterpillars have 16 parts. What different shapes do they make if each part lies in the small squares of a 4 by 4 square?
Can you see how these factor-multiple chains work? Find the chain which contains the smallest possible numbers. How about the largest possible numbers?
Can you complete this jigsaw of the multiplication square?
Can you hang weights in the right place to make the the number balance balanced?
In this 100 square, look at the green square which contains the numbers 2, 3, 12 and 13. What is the sum of the numbers that are diagonally opposite each other? What do you notice?
These sixteen children are standing in four lines of four, one behind the other. They are each holding a card with a number on it. Can you work out the missing numbers?
Can you arrange these numbers into 7 subsets, each of three numbers, so that when the numbers in each are added together, they make seven consecutive numbers?
Use these head, body and leg pieces to make Robot Monsters which are different heights.
As you come down the ladders of the Tall Tower you collect useful spells. Which way should you go to collect the most spells?
There are lots of ideas to explore in these sequences of ordered fractions.
Would you rather: Have 10% of £5 or 75% of 80p? Be given 60% of 2 pizzas or 26% of 5 pizzas?
Put operations signs between the numbers 3 4 5 6 to make the highest possible number and lowest possible number.
A political commentator summed up an election result. Given that there were just four candidates and that the figures quoted were exact find the number of votes polled for each candidate.
There are six numbers written in five different scripts. Can you sort out which is which?
Which is the bigger, 9^10 or 10^9 ? Which is the bigger, 99^100 or 100^99 ?
Jack's mum bought some candles to use on his birthday cakes and when his sister was born, she used them on her cakes too. Can you use the information to find out when Kate was born?
Can you work out the domino pieces which would go in the middle in each case to complete the pattern of these eight sets of three dominoes?
Buzzy Bee was building a honeycomb. She decorated the honeycomb with a pattern using numbers. Can you discover Buzzy's pattern and fill in the empty cells for her?
Pick two rods of different colours. Given an unlimited supply of rods of each of the two colours, how can we work out what fraction the shorter rod is of the longer one?
There are ten children in Becky's group. Can you find a set of numbers for each of them? Are there any other sets?
Twizzle, a female giraffe, needs transporting to another zoo. Which route will give the fastest journey?
Each child in Class 3 took four numbers out of the bag. Who had made the highest even number?
Don't get rid of your old calendars! You can get a lot more mathematical mileage out of them before they are thrown away. These activities, using cut up dates from the calendar, provide numbers to practise skills that may be in need of review after a holiday break.
Once a basic number sense has developed for numbers up to ten, a strong 'sense of ten' needs to be developed as a foundation for both place value and mental calculations.
Move from the START to the FINISH by moving across or down to the next square. Can you find a route to make these totals?
Can you draw a continuous line through 16 numbers on this grid so that the total of the numbers you pass through is as high as possible?
Find the exact difference between the largest ball and the smallest ball on the Hepta Tree and then use this to work out the MAGIC NUMBER!
What is the largest number you can make using the three digits 2, 3 and 4 in any way you like, using any operations you like? You can only use each digit once.
How many ways can you write the word EUROMATHS by starting at the top left hand corner and taking the next letter by stepping one step down or one step to the right in a 5x5 array?
Suppose you had to begin the never ending task of writing out the natural numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.... and so on. What would be the 1000th digit you would write down.
Is it true that $99^n$ has 2n digits and $999^n$ has 3n digits? Investigate!
From a group of any 4 students in a class of 30, each has exchanged Christmas cards with the other three. Show that some students have exchanged cards with all the other students in the class. How many such students are there?
In your bank, you have three types of coins. The number of spots shows how much they are worth. Can you choose coins to exchange with the groups given to make the same total?
Place this "worm" on the 100 square and find the total of the four squares it covers. Keeping its head in the same place, what other totals can you make?