Mind Boggle

Activity One

Students who are not familiar with using tables to eliminate possible outcomes will find this problem difficult. Teachers may wish to provide an easier example, such as:
Hattie and Troy each took a different attribute block from the set. Use the clues to work out which block each person took:
1. Hattie’s shape has three more sides than Troy’s shape:

2. Both Hattie and Troy did not take a big blue shape:

3. Troy’s shape was red and thicker than Hattie’s:

So, Hattie took a thin, yellow, small hexagon, and Troy took a thick, red, small triangle. The key idea
with using a matrix as above is that a positive selection (√) also results in some negative selections (✗).

Activity Two

The intersection is the common space shared by two or more circles. The blocks that can be placed at the intersection of these circles must have the attributes of the two or more circles involved. Note that in the second diagram, the space numbered 4 denotes the intersection of the three circles.

Answers to Activities

Activity One
Amy’s shape is a blue hexagon that is thin and small.
Priya’s shape is a yellow square that is thick and big.
Ralph’s shape is a red rectangle that is thin and small.

Activity Two
Space 1: yellow hexagonal blocks
Space 2: large yellow blocks
Space 3: large hexagonal blocks
Space 4: large, yellow hexagonal blocks