Latin Square Puzzle 5

The objective is to arrange all of the numbers on the grid so that the calculations both vertically and horizontally produce the given totals. Each number on a tile can only appear once in each vertical and horizontal line of four. The completed puzzle makes a 'Latin Square'.

The puzzles are randomly generated each time the page is loaded. The lower the puzzle number, the more tiles are already positioned in the correct place.

This puzzle is similar to those appearing in newspapers and puzzle books but, the big difference is the operations are positioned so that the standard order of operations that pupils should know (BIDMAS or PEMDAS) are not contradicted when working from left to right or top to bottom.

There are many other puzzles similar to this to be found on the Maths Puzzles page. Another puzzle based on a four by four Latin Square is called Numskull

Mathematicians are not the people who find Maths easy; they are the people who enjoy how mystifying, puzzling and hard it is. Are you a mathematician?

Comment recorded on the 5 April 'Starter of the Day' page by Mr Stoner, St George's College of Technology:

"This resource has made a great deal of difference to the standard of starters for all of our lessons. Thank you for being so creative and imaginative."

Comment recorded on the 10 April 'Starter of the Day' page by Mike Sendrove, Salt Grammar School, UK.:

"A really useful set of resources - thanks. Is the collection available on CD? Are solutions available?"

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Answers

The solutions to this and other Transum puzzles, exercises and activities are available in this space when you are signed in to your Transum subscription account. If you do not yet have an account and you are a teacher or parent you can apply for one here.

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Go Maths

Learning and understanding Mathematics, at every level, requires learner engagement. Mathematics is not a spectator sport. Sometimes traditional teaching fails to actively involve students. One way to address the problem is through the use of interactive activities and this web site provides many of those. The Go Maths main page links to more activities designed for students in upper Secondary/High school.

Teachers

If you found this activity useful don't forget to record it in your scheme of work or learning management system. The short URL, ready to be copied and pasted, is as follows:

Alternatively, if you use Google Classroom, all you have to do is click on the green icon below in order to add this activity to one of your classes.

It may be worth remembering that if Transum.org should go offline for whatever reason, there are mirror site at Transum.info that contains most of the resources that are available here on Transum.org.

When planning to use technology in your lesson always have a plan B!

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