Celebrate
Welcome to the Birthday Maths Hub, where you can celebrate your birthday while learning at the same time.
Engage with activities that combine mathematics and birthday themes for an enjoyable educational journey celebrating this anniversary of life!
Candles on Cakes
Drag candles on to the place-value birthday cakes to make the numbers given by clues and puzzles.
Birthdays Logic Puzzle
Complete the table showing the facts about three people who have their birthdays in April.
Cake Cut
This puzzle comes out of a need to carefully and accurately cut the last piece of a birthday cake into two equal pieces.
Dataset
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Here is a dataset that contains the birth dates of many famous historical figures. Create a histogram to display the distribution of these birthdays by month. Analyze the data and share your findings.
Algebra
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Amit was born on 2012, and Bob was born on 2015. Let \(x\) represent a year after 2015. Write algebraic expressions for Amit’s and Bob’s ages in terms of \(x\) then find out in which year Bob’s age was exactly two-thirds of Amit’s age.
Song
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Sing to the tune of Happy Birthday:
Three times seven is twenty one,
Four times seven is twenty eight,
Five times seven is thirty five,
Six times seven is forty two.
Ageing Quickly
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What was the date when Oliver correctly said that it was his birthday yesterday but next year he will be three years older than he was the day before yesterday?
Same Birthday
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Alice in Wonderland learns that in a class of 23 pupils the probability that two have the same birthday is more than a half. Alice is a fictional character created by author and mathematician Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) but the probability fact is true.
8 Different Digits
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Siphiwo Desmond Ntshebe, born on 28-06-1974 was a South African opera singer selected to perform at the opening ceremony for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in Johannesburg. This unusual date had no repeating digits. When is the next such date?
Doomsday Algorithm
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Did you know that there is an algorithm devised by John Conway to calculate the day of the week for any birth date? It's quite complicated but you can read about a simplified version of it here.
One Hundred Celebrations
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Did you know that by the time someone reaches the age of 100, they're likely to have had around 14 birthdays on each day of the week? What is your spread of birthday days so far?
Tuesday's Child
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Did you know that more people are born on Tuesday than any other day of the week? According to several studies, the highest number of births tend to occur on a Tuesday, followed closely by Monday.
Same D.O.B.
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How many people in the world share the same date of birth as you? Make some assumptions, look up some figures and then make a calculation based on your assumptions and research.
Lunar Birthday
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Did you know that in certain countries, such as Vietnam, everyone is one when they are born then celebrate their birthdays on the lunar New Year's day, regardless of the day they were actually born?
Centuries and Decades
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What birthday did Attika celebrate in the last leap year of the last century if she is ten years older than Winthrup who will celebrate his 40th birthday in the last leap year of the third decade of this century? Neither was born on 29th February!
Longest Birthday
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Guiness World Record: The longest birthday is 48 hours, and was achieved by Paul Morgan travelling from Apia, Samoa to Lihue, Hawaii to celebrate his 28th birthday.
Recycling Cards
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Guiness World Record: The Longest Birthday Card Exchange was achived by Mary Wheaton and Pat Shardelow (both USA) who have been exchanging the same birthday card since 1944.
Family Birthday
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Guiness World Record: Most family Members Sharing the Same Birthday was achieved by all nine members of the Mangi family who were all born on 1st August in different years.
