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? For a full description of the series, please see the first cache “1+1=1”. If you can’t solve a particular set of questions, try asking somebody of the appropriate age, or your friendly neighbourhood Maths teacher!
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.
This cache contains questions which are suitable for ages 16 and under, school years 11 and under.
1. The faces of a regular octahedron are to be painted so that no two faces which have an edge in common are painted in the same colour. A= the smallest number of colours required to do this.
2. PQRST is a regular pentagon and QRU is an equilateral triangle such that U is inside PQRST. What is the size of the angle UPQ? B=the sum of the digits in your answer.
3. The sum ONE + FOUR = SEVENTY is correct if we replace each word with the number of letters in it, to give 3+4=7. Using the same idea, c= the lowest number that makes the following sum work: THREE + FIVE = ?
4. I have a bag of coins. In it, one third are gold, one fifth are silver, two sevenths are bronze, and the rest are copper. My bag can hold a maximum of 200 coins. How many coins are in the bag? D = the sum of the digits in your answer.
5. Three positive integers are all different and their sum is 7. e= their product.
The cache can be found at N50 45.PQR E0 13.STU where P=D, Q=C-14, R=C-B, S=A+D-1, T=E-7, U=B+D-C
You can check your answers for this puzzle on GeoChecker.com.