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Dear all, Happy New Year! 2006 brings the mathematical theme of Mechanics to the NRICH website (http://nrich.maths.org). Our balance environment provides you with a rich resource in which to explore this topic and many of the problems make use of it. We might associate mechanics with mathematics at a high level but there is plenty of scope for tackling some aspects if you're at primary school and there's a great opportunity to overlap with science. Explore the cogs interactivity in Turning Cogs (<http://nrich.maths.org/public/viewer.php?obj_id=4771>) and see if they can deduce how they interlock. Why not try Weighted Numbers (<http://nrich.maths.org/public/viewer.php?obj_id=4726>) - can you work out where to hang the numbered weights so that it balances? For more of a challenge, Balance 1 (<http://nrich.maths.org/public/viewer.php?obj_id=4342>), Balance 2 (<http://nrich.maths.org/public/viewer.php?obj_id=4343>) and Balance 3 (<http://nrich.maths.org/public/viewer.php?obj_id=4344>) will be worth a look. You can use the environment to find out where Meg should place her pouch of marbles so that it balances with Mo's. Can you predict how many marbles Mo would need if Meg's pouch were 75cm from the centre? Inside Outside (<http://nrich.maths.org/public/viewer.php?obj_id=4767>) takes these ideas a bit further and requires the use of algebra to find arrangements of weights that balance. Whoosh (<http://nrich.maths.org/public/viewer.php?obj_id=4755>) describes two balls in a frictionless shute. How far does a ball at the bottom of the shute travel horizontally before it hits the ground once a second ball at the top of the shute collides with it? We hope you find motivating and challenging problems to keep you busy and look forward to receiving your solutions. With best wishes from the NRICH Team. Liz Pumfrey NRICH Primary Teacher Research Associate University of Cambridge Centre for Mathematical Sciences Wilberforce Road Cambridge CB3 0WA 01223 764246 www.nrich.maths.org _______________________________________________ To post to the list send an email to [log in to unmask] To unsubscribe send an email to [log in to unmask] with the message body UNSUBSCRIBE NRICH-TALK or unsubscribe via the web at http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wa.exe?REPORT&Z=3