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Watch the video below:
If you can't access YouTube, here is a direct link to the video: UnexpectedOrdering.mp4. You can view closed captions by selecting 'CC' in the bottom menu of the video once it is playing.
What do you notice?
What do you want to ask?
Watch it again.
Perhaps some of your questions have been answered. Or you might have thought of new questions.
Try the task for yourself. What happens?
What happens if you use a different order of 1s and 2s in dealing out the cards?
Can you explain why this is maths and not a magic trick?
You may be interested in the other problems in our Using Wonder to Promote Curiosity Feature.
This problem featured in an NRICH video in June 2020.
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?
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?
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?