NEWS Common

A Maths Starter of The Day

There are 25 square plots of land on NEWS Common. Each has an area of exactly 1km2.

4km
E		 1km
E		 4km
S		 2km
S		 2km
S
2km
S		 3km
E		 1km
W		 1km
W		 4km
W
1km
E		 2km
N		 F 3km
W		 2km
W
4km
E		 1km
S		 1km
E		 2km
N		 3km
W
4km
N		 2km
E		 2km
E		 4km
N		 4km
W

If you are to visit each plot once, follow the direction given in the square and finish in the centre, where should you start?

Assume north is up, west is to the left etc. Visiting a plot means landing on the square, not simply passing through it.

 

 

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Keywords: Starter | Bearings | Puzzles

  • J Barclay-Devine, Ashton Middle
  • Wednesday, April 16, 2008
  • "We assumed that visit meant crossing a square but having looked at your solution we can see visit meant landing on a square. Perhaps slightly different wording could be used. My class had come to the conclusion it wasn't possible until we looked at the answer."
  • Transum,
  • Saturday, April 19, 2008
  • "Thanks Ashton Middle School. We have changed the wording slightly as you suggested."
  • Mr Ali, Washwood Heath
  • Tuesday, April 22, 2008
  • "Year 7, Set 9/10, figured out bottom right hand corner, I think it starts 4km W, and it has less steps than the solution"
  • ILB, Derbyshire
  • Friday, April 09, 2010
  • "Generally love your starters but not going to try this one as it could confuse lower ability pupils - all the directions have to be reversed to work "back" to the answer. I think the answer given by Transum is the only one where every square is visited as per the rules given; starting elsewhere would mean not stopping at all the locations."
  • BCD, London
  • Monday, April 19, 2010
  • "Am going to try it today - can it not be solved by taking a random point and going as far as possible with it. if it doesn't get to F then selesct another "not visited" square. Repeat until all done. Hopefully."

    •  

  • Mrs. Babb's Fourth Period Class, Woodruff High School, Woodruff, SC
  • Tuesday, April 20, 2010
  • "We found a way that works! Start at the 1 km W diagonally to the right of the F box. We visited/went through each square and ended at "F"."
  • Mr Smith, Renfrew High School
  • Wednesday, September 29, 2010
  • "We worked out that you start on the 1 km East square directly below the finish by starting at the finish and working our way backwards."

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Answer

You should start in the square below (to the south of) the "Finish" Square.

 
Computer Teacher, do your students have access to computers?
Do you have "Laptops in Lessons"?

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

Laptop

Here is the URL which will take them to a concise version of this page.

Transum.org/go/?Start=April19

Students could make up a puzzle like this using a spreadsheet or a table in a word processor or desktop publisher.