This mathematical series of puzzle caches has questions from all levels of school education, from Key Stage 1 (age 5-7) in the first few caches, all the way up to Further Maths A-Level in the last few caches. Everybody should be able to get the solutions to the first few caches, but how far through the series will you be able to get?
The difficulty rating is to reflect the difficulty of the puzzles, not the find of the cache as they are all reasonably easy to find.
It is not intended that you find all of these on one walk, but you may find that you can link a few up to form a walk. It all depends on which you find!
Please note that many of the caches are hidden near busy roads, so please take care when finding them, especially if you have children with you. It is worth noting that there is parking possible within a few hundred metres of all caches and a quick look on a satellite view map should show suitable places.
There are three ‘bonus’ caches in the series, called Bronze, Silver and Gold, which each contain a question from the caches in the appropriate key stages. You don’t need to have solved all of the questions from the previous caches in order to find these bonus caches, but if you have done, you might want to keep your answers to them!
For those who know about these things, you will notice that I have not included any questions from the Decision Maths modules. This is because it is a relatively new addition to the Maths syllabus and I wanted all of the caches to be (theoretically) possible for adult cachers of all ages, no matter of when they last studied Maths. I might add some in the future….
All of the questions have been adapted and altered in subtle ways from existing questions for the appropriate age groups and so are exactly what students of those ages can expect to have to answer. The caches are arranged by levels, school years and ages in the following way:
1+1=1, Key Stage 1, Years 1 and 2, Age 5-7.
1+1=2, Key Stage 1, Years 1 and 2, Age 5-7.
1+1=3, Key Stage 1, Years 1 and 2, Age 5-7.
1+1=4, Key Stage 2, Years 3-6, Age 7-11.
1+1=5, Key Stage 2, Years 3-6, Age 7-11.
1+1=6, Key Stage 2, Years 3-6, Age 7-11.
1+1=Bronze, A question from each of the previous 6 caches. Key Stage 1 & 2.
1+1=8, Key Stage 3, Years 7-9, Age 11-14.
1+1=9, Key Stage 3, Years 7-9, Age 11-14.
1+1=10, Key Stage 3, Years 7-9, Age 11-14.
1+1=11, Key Stage 3 questions, but thinking in a slightly different way.
1+1=12, Key Stage 3 questions, but thinking in a slightly different way.
1+1=13, Key Stage 3 questions, but thinking in a slightly different way.
1+1=14, Key Stage 4, Years 10-11, Age 14-16 – GCSE.
1+1=15, Key Stage 4, Years 10-11, Age 14-16 – GCSE.
1+1=16, Key Stage 4, Years 10-11, Age 14-16 – GCSE.
1+1=17, Key Stage 4 questions, but thinking in a slightly different way.
1+1=18, Key Stage 4 questions, but thinking in a slightly different way.
1+1=19, Key Stage 4 questions, but thinking in a slightly different way.
1+1=Silver, A question from each of the previous 12 caches. Key Stage 3 & 4.
1+1=21, A-Level Maths (Core - easier questions), Age 16-18.
1+1=22, A-Level Maths (Statistics), Age 16-18.
1+1=23, A-Level Maths (Mechanics), Age 16-18.
1+1=24, A-Level Maths (Core - harder questions), Age 16-18.
1+1=25, Sixth Form appropriate questions, but thinking in a slightly different way.
1+1=26, Sixth Form appropriate questions, but thinking in a slightly different way.
1+1=27, Sixth Form appropriate questions, but thinking in a slightly different way.
1+1=28, A-Level Further Maths (Pure), Age 16-18.
1+1=29, A-Level Further Maths (Statistics), Age 16-18.
1+1=30, A-Level Further Maths (Mechanics), Age 16-18.
1+1=Gold, A question from each of the previous 10 Sixth Form.
1. 7 + a = 10
2. A bus left at 10 o’clock to go to the zoo. It arrived 1 hour and 15 minutes later. At what time did it arrive? b = the sum of all of the digits in your answer.
3. David is 7 years and 4 months old. Mary is 7 years and 0 months old. Jaime is 6 years and 10 months old. Henry is 7 years and 6 months old. Cathryn is 6 years and 11 months old. Dominic is 6 years and 11 months old. c= the number of children who are older than Mary.
4. d= Find half of 38 and then take away 10.
5. Adam needs 26 cartons of juice for his party. There are 4 cartons in a pack. E= the number of packs he will need.
The cache can be found at N50 44.PQR, E0 12.STU where P=E, Q=C, R=A-3, S=D-E, T=B, U=D-3
You can check your answers for this puzzle on GeoChecker.com.
Edit: Following a conversation with a fellow cacher in a pub, who was interested in the statistics of the cache series as a whole, I have put a picture of a little chart with the total finds per cache for this series in the photo gallery. I am assuming that if you are attempting this series, that you have at least a passing interest in Maths!