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About Me

About The Questions. All from the classroom.

Firstly I must tell you that this website is very basic, it only contains sentences. This is because I am blind and have been since 1999. It was written for me by my son so that I could carry on promoting the love and enjoyment of mathematics. With the help of computer aids and OCR I can cope, but it does take me a long time. Fortunately I started to write these problems in the 1950's, which helps.
Obviously my name is Bill Markwick and I am a long time lover of mathematics. I started as a mathematics teacher in 1968 in a large comprehensive school in Hull (1750 children, 11-18). My love for mathematics and mathematical puzzles and riddles started in the 1950’s and has continued throughout my life. Since then I have collected all kinds of puzzles and problems and have used them with all sorts of students as a way of making mathematics more enjoyable, as well as introducing them to a multitude of different thought processes. A lot of these questions I often used as end of term problems but many were used to reinforce the curriculum. Some of the Ideas for questions come from books and magazines now long out of print so I cannot acknowledge where they come from, only to say their memory still lives on. Some questions come from teachers who brought them to sessions with pupils in Cleveland Mathematics Masterclasses and a great deal from pupils themselves, in class discussions and challenges.

For me the correct answer is a bonus but the real idea behind these questions is for people to reinforce their different methods of approach to the problem solving environment.

A mathematician is said to be a master of pattern, but there are many patterns to be mastered.

Someone once said that mathematics is like being in a completely dark room, you stumble around feeling your way and then you find the light switch and everything becomes clear. How true.

I hope you will enjoy these problems as much as I have in bringing them back to life.

All the questions you will experience on this website have come from the classroom, a lot of them have been given to the class by me for them to solve, but a great many have been the outcome of discussion with pupils, the pupils have formulated the question themselves, sometimes individually or as a collective outcome when working in groups.

My aim is to give you 3 questions each week, with answers and hints/strategies for solution. Similar types of question will be repeated at some stage so that your strategies for solution will be reinforced. For me the answer has always been a bonus, the strategies and different approaches to achieving this are at the heart of the question.

I have never been a believer in giving answers, but obviously on a website I cannot interact with people and that is the reason in giving hints and then answers. My whole teaching and lecturing have been based on this statement.

If I give you the answer I will satisfy you for the moment.
If I show you how to find the answer, I will satisfy you for a lifetime.



One hint for you to remember is what this symbol means, “=”. It does not always mean that the LHS is identical to the RHS. It can mean “becomes”, “will lead you to the answer”, “is the same as”, etc.