Mathematical Photographs
This collection of photographs and questions has been collated by the Staffordshire Mathematics team. They can be used to generate mathematical questioning and investigation. Right click on the picture and 'save picture as' to save on your computer. They can then be enlarged or used in another application.
Brick Wall
If the wall is 4m long how many bricks would I need for a wall ……….metres long?
If the height of a brick is 65mm, estimate the height of the wall.
What is the ratio of the face of a brick to the gap?
If I knew the number of bricks how could I work out the number of gaps?
Arlington Cemetery
Estimate how many graves you can see in the photo?
If this is a 1/20 of the whole of the cemetery estimate how many people are buried in total?
How does this compare in size with the Cannock Chase German War Cemetery?
If each grave stone is identical and has the dimensions of 1.5m high by 1.0m wide by 0.25m depth estimate the surface area of an individual plot?
Aeroplanes
What shape is the formation?
Can you describe the properties of this shape?
What other numbers of planes would make the same shape?
What shapes can you create if you remove/ add 1.. plane/s to the formation?
If fuel is used at a rate of ….. per…., how much fuel would be needed for a display of …. long?
If the planes are ……m apart from each other can you estimate the length/ height of the formation?
Bridge
Are the triangles congruent?
What shapes can you see?
What does the "40" stand for?
Estimate the length of the arc
If the central height of the bridge is 3m how long is the bridge? How much steel has been used?
Directions
Convert all the distances to miles
Calculate the angle between ………. and ………..
Could you calculate the distance between ……… and ………. (top end GCSE question)
How accurate is the diagram given the distances?
Dogs
How many different ways could you choose two dogs?
If one collar is 27cm what is the total of 4 collars in metres?
For every 4 dogs 2 are black. How many black dogs would there be for 20 dogs? 80 dogs?
What fraction of the dogs is brown?
How many legs? Ears?
Pavement
How many tiles in one shape?
If one tile has an area of …… find the area of the shape
What fraction of the shape if the overlap?
Is the overlap a square? Explain your answer
Fountain
Photograph taken at Chatsworth House, Derbyshire
The measurements are given using imperial measures. What would be the metric equivalents?
Speed of the flow/water rates
How long ago was this fountain built?
If it took 6 months to build an 8 acre lake, how long would it take to build a … acre lake?
What is the total of all the numbers you can see in this picture?
Cupboard
This is a cupboard inside the Topaki Palace in Istanbul, Turkey
Are all the tiles identical? How do you know?
Describe the rotational and symmetrical properties of the picture.
Dome
This picture was taken at Chatworth House, Derbyshire.
If the diameter of the dome is 1.8m, what is the circumference?
Is there a pattern in the concentric circles? Describe it to a friend.
Oc tagon Floor
What shapes can you see?
Can you identify any congruent shapes?
Does this shape have any symmetry? Explain.
Propeller
Is there symmetry? What type?
Order of rotational symmetry?
Can you work out the angles at the centre of the propeller?
Hands
Estimate the size of the hands.
How big would the whole person be?
How big would the feet be? etc.
How much would they weigh? (Use of BMI?)
How much food would they eat?
How fast could they run?
Design a chair (desk etc) for the person.
Slates
Estimate how many shapes are in the picture?
If the area you see is 7.14m2 and the length is 3.4m, what is the width?
Window
This is a window inside the Topaki Palace in Istanbul, Turkey
In the star, what are the acute angles? How do you know? What are the obtuse angles?
Which shapes can you see in this picture?
Create your own window design using 2 shapes?
Paving
Can you explain why these shapes tessellate?
What other tessellating patterns could you make with this shape?
What other shapes would tessellate?
If each brick is 150mm x 60mm, how many bricks would you need to pave a drive 3m x 10m?
Trees
On average how many trees are in each row?
What is the ratio of the shadow to the tree?
What would you estimate to be the time of day? Why?
Wall tiles
Describe the symmetry
Each tiles is a square. Each tile is x cm wide. How many tiles are needed to tile a wall x by x?
Last Modified:
27/09/2010 11:31:25
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