Recreational Mathematics

Recreational mathematics is a kind of activities using mathematics

knowledge to create various types of games as recreational activities,
based on certain mathematics principles, laws and theorems for
amusement purposes.
There are a few types of recreational mathematics such as number
patterns and sequences, number operations, magic square,
mathematics games, geometric patterns and tessellations, tangram etc.
Recreation is in the eye of the beholder, and not everything here was
originally intended as recreational by its authors
Recreational Mathematics also included a mixture of puzzles, silliness,
curious/useless math, and quite serious (but not overly technical) math
Mathematical puzzles vary from the simple to deep problems which are still
unsolved. The whole history of mathematics is interwoven with
mathematical games which have led to the study of many areas of
mathematics. Number games, geometrical puzzles, network problems and
combinatorial problems are among the best known types of puzzles.
Number patterns & sequences
Triangular numbers
1, 3, 6, 10, 15,

1 3 6
10
Number patterns & sequences
Square numbers
1, 4, 9, 16, 25, ..

,...... 4 , 3 , 2 , 1
2 2 2 2
1 4 9 16
Number patterns & sequences
Rectangular numbers
4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14,
- These numbers can be used to form a
diagram of rectangles.

Special Number Patterns for
whole number
1 + 9 0 =
2 + 9 1 =
3 + 9 12 =
4 + 9 123 =
5 + 9 1234 =
6 + 9 12345 =
7 + 9 123456 =
8 + 9 1234567 =
9 + 9 12345678 =
What do you see from these whole number operations?




Special Number Patterns for
whole number
0 9 + 8 =
9 9 + 7 =
98 9 + 6 =
987 9 + 5 =
9876 9 + 4 =
98765 9 + 3 =
987654 9 + 2 =
9876543 9 + 1 =
98765432 9 + 0 =
What can you infer from the above operations?





Special Number Patterns for
whole number
12345679 9 =
12345679 18 =
12345679 27 =
12345679 36 =
12345679 45 =
12345679 54 =
12345679 63 =
12345679 72 =
12345679 81 =
What is the special pattern which you can derive from
the above operations?









Special Number Patterns for
whole number
1 3 37 =
2 3 37 =
3 3 37 =
4 3 37 =
5 3 37 =
6 3 37 =
What is the special pattern which you can
derive from the above operations?





Special Number Patterns for
whole number
101 11 =
101 22 =
101 33 =
101 44 =
101 55 =
101 66 =
101 77 =
101 88 =
101 99 =

What is the special pattern which you can derive from the above
operations?

Special Number Patterns for
whole number
15873 7 =
15873 14 =
15873 21 =
15873 28 =
15873 35 =
15873 42 =
15873 49 =
15873 56 =
15873 63 =

What is the special pattern which you can derive from the above
operations?

Special Number Patterns for
whole number
How about this number 37037?
37037 3 =
37037 6 =
37037 9 =
37037 12=
37037 15 =
37037 18 =
37037 21 =
37037 24 =
37037 27 =

Special Number Patterns for
whole number
1 1 =
11 11 =
111 111 =
1111 1111 =
11111 11111 =
111111 111111 =
1111111 1111111 =
11111111 11111111 =
111111111 111111111 =
What is the special pattern which you can infer from the operation
above?



Special Number Patterns for
whole number
Consider these numbers,
99 2 =
99 3 =
99 4 =
99 5 =
99 6 =
99 7 =
99 8 =
99 9 =
What is the special pattern which you can infer from the
operation above?

Special Number Patterns for
whole number
99 11 =
99 22 =
99 33 =
99 44 =
99 55 =
99 66 =
99 77 =
99 88 =
99 99 =
What is the special pattern that you can observe from
the above operations?

Special Number Patterns for
whole number
e.g. 12 = 11 + 1
123 = 111 + 11 + 1
Express the followings in the similar form.
1234 =
12345 =
123456 =
1234567=
Special Number Patterns for
whole number
1 + 11 =
12 + 111 =
123 + 1111 =
1234 + 11111 =
12345 + 111111 =
123456 + 1111111 =
1234567 + 11111111 =
12345678 + 111111111 =
What is the special pattern that you observe from the
above addition?


Special Number Patterns for
whole number
78 + 23 =
778 + 223 =
7778 + 2223 =
77778 + 22223 =
777778 + 222223 =
7777778 + 2222223 =
77777778 + 22222223 =
777777778 + 222222223 =
What is the special pattern that you observe from
the above operations?


Special Number Patterns
You can perform 2 different operations on the
same numbers which give you the same
answer.





5
4
5
4
4
3
4
3
3
2
3
2
2
1
2
1
4 4
3 3
2 2
1 1
Special Number Patterns
What is the special pattern of the answer?
What is the sum of





11
1
10
1
5
1
4
1
4
1
3
1
3
1
2
1
2
1
.
.
.
1
?
12
1
6
1
4
1
2
1

Magic Square

1. Can you fill up the 3x3
square with numbers
from 1 to 9 without
repetition such that the
sum of every diagonal,
row and ?.
2.what about 4x4 square?
3.what about 5x5 square?
4.what about 6x6 square?
Magic Square
3x3 square




4x4 square
6 1 8
7 5 3
2 9 4
16 2 3 13
5 11 10 8
9 7 6 12
4 14 15 1
Magic Square
5x5 square




6x6 square
15 2 21 4 23
6 14 17 18 10
25 19 13 7 1
16 8 9 12 20
3 22 5 24 11
36 2 3 4 5 31
7 29 9 10 26 12
13 14 22 21 17 18
19 20 16 15 23 24
25 11 27 28 8 30
6 32 33 34 35
1
Magic Square
Formulas
For a n x n magic
square.
The sum for the magic
number =
} 1 {
2
2
n
n
Guess a Number
1. guess a number
2. subtract 1 from that number
3. multiply the answer by 2
4. add the guess number to the result.
5. what is the guess number?

Cryptogram
FORTY
TEN
+ TEN
SIXTY
such that each alphabet represent a
number, what are these number?
Cryptogram
SEND
+ MORE
MONEY

FOUR ABCD
- TWO x 4
T E N DCBA
Puzzle
A guest was visiting Mrs. Blake when Mrs. Blakess
three children entered.
Ive never met your children, said the guest.
The middle child is Bill, said the oldest child.
Im Bob, said the middle child.
The middle child is Bart, said the youngest child.
If you want to know who is who, said Mrs. Blake, Bill
always tells the truth, Bob tells the truth sometimes,
and Bart never tells the truth.
Identify each of the children.
Puzzle
The following details part of a conversation between Mr. Chai and Mrs.
Latifah at a social gathering in Mr. Chais house:

Mr. Chai: I have 3 children. The product of their ages is 72 and
the sum of their ages is the same as the number of my house. So,
how old is each one of them?
(After going out to the front of the house to have a look at the house
number.)

Mrs. Latifah:I still cannot determine your childrens ages.

Mr. Chai: Okay, I will give another small hint. My eldest child
likes to eat vanilla chocolate.

Mrs. Latifah: (After reflecting & doing a bit of maths) Ah, now I see the
light. (and she then gave the correct ages of the children.)
Puzzle
In the famous Monty Hall problem, there are 3 doors.
Behind one door is a Mercedes Benz (the main prize)
and behind each of the other two doors is a goat.
The player cannot see what is behind the doors. He
selects one door as his choice for the prize. Monty
(the T.V. show host) then opens one of the other
doors and shows a goat behind it. He then gives the
player the choice of sticking to his previous door (still
closed) or changing to another ( the remaining closed)
door. Should the player stick to his original choice or
shift to the other door, and if so, why?
Problem solving
Each of the five digits 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 is
used to fill each of the circles ( in the
figure below) such that each line of
three digits add up to the same sum.
How many possible solutions are there?
It is possible for the digit in the centre
circle to be an even number? Explain
your reasoning.
Problem Solving
Each of the nine digits 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,
8 and 9 is used to fill each of the circles
( in the figure below) such that each
line of five digits add up to the same
sum. How many possible solutions are
there? It is possible for the digit in the
centre circle to be an even number?
Problem Solving
How will you measure exactly 2 litres of
water using 8-litre and 5-litre containers?
Problem Solving
Ali can paint a wall in 2 working days.
Siew Mei takes 4 working days to paint
the same wall. How many working days
would it take to finish the same job if
both work (at the same rates as above)
together to paint the same wall?
Problem solving
The area of square A is 25 square units.
The area of square F is 4 square units.
The area of square G is 25 square units.
Find the area of square B, square C.
square D, square E and square H.
Explain
A
B
C
E
F
D
G
H
Problem solving
Mr. Lim has a piece of land as shown below. He
decided to divide the land equally in shape
and size among his four children. Can you
help him to divide the land?
Problem solving
Encik Ali has a piece of land which are planted
with 12 rambutan trees as shown below. He
wishes to divide that land equally among his
four children. Can you help him to do so?
CALCULATOR GAMES
Addition estimation game
1. Choose any two numbers from the following
and cross them out
26, 53, 7, 46, 14, 4, 31, 29, 20, 2, 37, 33, 18, 35
2. Add them together and use the following
table to work out how many points you get.


Answer 0-19 20-39 40-59 60-79 80-99
Points 1 2 3 4 5
CALCULATOR GAMES
Subtraction estimation game
1. Choose any two numbers from the following and
cross them out
48, 52, 9, 12, 67, 25, 32, 1, 93, 100, 27, 70, 18, 39,
4, 83
2. Find the difference between this two numbers and
use the following table to work out how many
points you get.


Answer 0-19 20-39 40-59 60-79 80-99
Points 1 2 3 4 5