The Square Tile ShowroomAuthor(s): Bob HebsonSource: Mathematics in School, Vol. 33, No. 3 (May, 2004), p. 14Published by: The Mathematical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30215695 .

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The Square Tile Showroom by Bob Hebson

The owners of the 'Square Tile' showroom want to display their 1 m2 carpet tiles on the floor of their 15 m by 15 m premises, in a mathematical fashion, to demonstrate how the square numbers are generated. If they use tiles in three colours how many of each colour are required for the display?

This is an investigation that can be tackled by pupils of all abilities. After drawing and colouring the tiles on 1 cm2 paper the pupils can be encouraged to work out why there are 65, 75 and 85 tiles. The next step can be five colours on the same floor size or four colours on a 16 by 16 floor giving them the opportunity to look at the factors of the floor dimensions. This can lead on to using the middle number of the 3 or 5 display as the mean number of tiles and discussing what to do with even numbers. M

Keywords: Investigation; Factors.

Author Bob Hebson, Abbey Grange CE High School, Butcher Hill, Leeds LS16 5EA. e-mail: bobhebson+hotmail.com

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14 Mathematics in School, May 2004 The MA web site www.m-a.org.uk

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