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If five people are friends, how many friendships are there? New year and perhaps new school, so “make new friends, keep the old” has a special intensity. You might build up to the title question, starting with, “If two people are friends, how many friendships are there?”  Perhaps A’s friendship for B, B’s for A; A&B’s different…

For those still at school, or for anyone running a summer school or otherwise wrangling groups of children over the summer, here’s a suggestion for a Thinkers’ Scavenger Hunt to enjoy the outdoors while being creative and puzzling. Split into groups of 4 and give each group one thing at a time to find, then they can go…

Yesterday, I saw a bumble bee stuck in a spider’s web. If you free a bee from a web, are you stealing from the spider? I love bees and, more unusually, I also love spiders: you rather have to if you live on a narrowboat. The bee solved my dilemma by freeing itself, but it turns out…