Prize Maths Quiz: A Tricky Tower (PMQ6)

Alice was feeling sick and lying in bed in the middle of the afternoon. She hated feeling sick and she hated lying in bed. Well, that wasn’t entirely true; she loved feeling soft and warm in her bed, but today she was feeling hot and irritated.

Bill suddenly bounced through the door.

“Hello Alice! How are you? I just popped round to cheer you up a bit – Mother said you had a slight fever.”

Bill was being chirpy; it seemed like bad manners to be chirpy on a day when Alice wasn’t.

“Look, I brought you a present!” Bill handed Alice a big box covered in coloured triangles and shapes. Before Alice had a chance to ask, Bill volunteered to explain, “It’s a jigsaw puzzle. A big jigsaw puzzle! I hope you like it.”

Alice thought Bill wanted a pat on the head and a fresh bone. The pattern on the front looked interesting but, as Alice opened the box, she frowned.

Prize Maths Quiz (PMQ6): Announcement for Friday 15 February

The next Prize Maths Quiz (PMQ6) will be posted on Friday 15 February at 01:21 GMT.

The competition will close, as usual, on the Sunday at 23:59 GMT. Please use our official GMT clock on the right-hand column.

See you Friday!




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Prize Maths Quiz: Mercury and the Sum of a Series (PMQ5)

“Hello. Who are you?”

“My name is Alice. What’s yours?”

“I’m Mercury; welcome to my wedding.”

“Wedding?! You seem so young to be getting married!”

“I know, I’m supposed to look young, but actually I’m very old.” Mercury looked around as if he was about to slip out a secret. “All my family have been telling me for centuries to get married, settle down, raise some kids, but I just want to fly away.”

“Me too! I love to fly!!” Alice felt as if her words had just echoed around the whole universe and that everybody had heard them. She blushed a little.

At that moment, a thunderous clap jolted both Alice and Mercury from their reverie and they both turned their head to stare at what appeared to be the Sun slowly coming down to land in the middle of the... party! Alice had been so charmed by her new friend that she hadn’t noticed that she was in the middle of some kind of carnival.

Prize Maths Quiz: Winners of PMQ2

Again, we had very few entries to our PMQ2 Ice-creams and Cubes competition. However, there were more for PMQ3, so I'm glad to see participation picking up. I will announce the PMQ3 winners once they have replied to my email.

back to PMQ2, I am pleased to announce that our one and only winner is:

Andrew Grounds (USA)

Well done!

PMQ4 will be posted this Friday and I shall announce the exact time during Thursday.

Please make sure you read our full rules on PMQ events and our committment to COPPA guidelines regarding children's online security.

See you Friday!


Don’t forget to follow Gifted Mathematics on Google+, Facebook or Twitter.

You can also subscribe to our Bookmarks on StumbleUpon and Pinterest. Many resources never make it onto the pages of Gifted Mathematics but are stored in these bookmarking websites to share with you.

Prize Maths Quiz: Ice-creams and Cubes (PMQ2)

"Hey, Brenda, finish that PMQ later. Come and look at this!"

Alice and Brenda had spent the day at a flea-market helping their parents sell some old stuff. They were both able to keep the money they made from their own old toys and books. They agreed to meet at a local ice-cream parlour to relax and count their takings. But on arriving, Alice could see her friend had been crying.

"What's wrong Brenda? Why are you crying?"

"Look!" Brenda pointed to her little money box. "Empty! All the money I made today has gone! I don't know what happened, I couldn't just have lost it. My whole day wasted, and can't even buy some new books!"

Alice quickly added up the few coins left in Brenda's money box. She had already counted hers to the nearest penny. Being a bit of a maths whizz, Alice did a quick calculation and said to herself, "Mmm... that's bizarre, my money is exactly the cube of yours; in pennies, of course."

The First Friday Prize Maths Question Announcement

Although just a few days old, I'm kicking off the new year with our first Prize Maths Question (or PMQ). Every week a PMQ will be posted on Friday. Please read the general details on our PMQ page.

To make it fair to everyone in the world, the competition question will be posted at a different time every week. To make it even fairer, (and less annoying not having to come to check all the time) I shall announce the exact time a day or two before.

So here it is... a little early as it's the first time:

This week's GiftedMathematics.com Prize Maths Question will be posted on Friday 11 January at 08:42 GMT.

See you then!

Oh, and not forgetting, general mathematics questions will be posted on Mondays and Wednesday. Tutorial materials will be published as and when they are ready.