Blog

This quiz looks at some of the shapes found in maths and science. Give it a go and see how you shape up!

This traditional Chinese puzzle, known as a tangram, reveals some surprising properties of squares!

By Fiona Midson and Beth Askham Here is ‘acute’ quiz for you to size up! Answer these questions to see if you are in shape.

Difficulty: Tricky Jasper had a regular (sides and angles all the same) hexagon with 10-centimetre sides, and 3 regular triangles with 10-centimetre sides. He put the side of a triangle against every second side of the hexagon. How many sides did this final shape have?

Difficulty: Tricky Idir was in the bathroom when he noticed that the tiles weren’t all the same shape! Instead, there were two different shapes of tiles.

In this sample from More Hands-on Science, we’re looking at infinitely detailed shapes known as fractals. If you do this activity, you can discover a fractal called the dragon curve!

Difficulty: Tricky Gertrude has a collection of shapes that she likes to arrange in patterns. She starts with a regular hexagon with 10 cm sides, and three regular triangles that also have 10 cm sides. She arranges the triangles around the hexagon, and then lines them up. In the end, one side of each triangle […]

Strong can mean a lot of different things to scientists. Every question in this quiz has something to do with strength.

It’s that time of year again! The winner of the Abel prize, mathematics’ answer to the Nobel, has been announced. This year’s winner is Robert Langlands, a mathematician more famous for asking questions than answering them.

What kinds of shapes pack a flat surface with no gaps? Squares are great for floor tiles, and bees stick hexagons together. With a bit of work, you can get any triangle, no matter how stretched, to fit together without gaps. But what about pentagons? These five-sided shapes are awkward, but some types fit together.