Letters in Numbers

A Maths Starter of The Day

Can You Find...

... an even number with an odd number of letters?

 

 ... a square number with a prime number of letters?

 

 ... a cube number with a triangular number of letters?

 
... an odd number with an even number of letters?

 

 ... a prime number with a square number of letters?

 

 ... a triangular number with a cube number of letters?

 

 

 

 

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Topics: Starter | Number Patterns

  • Mr Hamshaw-Hart, Beverley Grammar School
  • Tuesday, April 15, 2008
  • "For the extension question... Which numbers have the same number of letters as their value? Top set year 11 also found 'positive fifteen'"
  • Linda Dunbar,
  • Tuesday, April 14, 2009
  • "I love the idea of this, but would be helpful if it was seperated into grade levels. I'd especially love to see something geared towards younger children (I teach Kindergarten)."
  • M Vestey, Sheffield
  • Thursday, May 07, 2009
  • "Strictly speaking, 1 is not a prime number, it is the multiplicative identity."
  • Mr Taylor, Gartree High School, Leicester
  • Tuesday, April 13, 2010
  • "Nice activity, thanks!
    But... prime numbers all have 2 factors, one and themselves, so one is not a prime number as it only has one factor.
    Also, could you move the extension question to below the original problem please? It's not any help below the answers as you don't see it until everybody's finished."
  • Victoria Hughes, St Josephs High School
  • Wednesday, April 17, 2013
  • "Great starter thanks. To those who are referring to the find a square number with a prime number of letters that would 1, has it has three letters (prime)."

    •  

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This starter has scored a mean of 3.1 out of 5 based on 27 votes.

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Answers
 
... an even number with an odd number of letters?

2

 ... a square number with a prime number of letters?

1

 ... a cube number with a triangular number of letters?

1
... an odd number with an even number of letters?

5

 ... a prime number with a square number of letters?

5

 ... a triangular number with a cube number of letters?

66

 

Extension: Which numbers have the same number of letters as their value?

 

 

 

The answer to the extension is only 4.

What about other languages.

Students could search for the answer to this question on the Internet.
Let us know what you find!
Laptops In Lessons

Teacher, do your students have access to computers?
Do they have Laptops in Lessons or iPads?

Whether your students each have a TabletPC, a Surface or a Mac, this activity lends itself to eLearning (Engaged Learning).

Laptops In Lessons

Here is the URL for a concise version of this page without comments or answers.

Transum.org/go/?Start=April14

Here's the URL which will take
students to a page which generates the sequences mentioned in this activity.
Can you make up some other questions like these? Let us know.

http://www.transum.org/go/?to=sequences