The Problem Pictures CD-ROM has 184 colour photographs with activities for mathematics teaching.

On the disc you will find a great mixture of images some of which are attractive, unusual or puzzling. They may challenge you to explain, to investigate, or to answer a question. Other pictures may be the starting point for a survey or a design. If a picture appeals to you, it is perhaps asking you to do something with it. Pose your own problem and then try to solve it.

Each photograph comes with a question or activity. For each there is a page giving hints, solutions and further information. Initially all the photographs can be viewed as a video montage with a music soundtrack.

The disc is intended principally for students in the 9 to 16 age group, although some of the activities could be tackled by younger and older students. Themes covered by the pictures include symmetry, ratio, number patterns, spirals, games, packaging, mazes and sundials.

Each photograph is saved as jpeg files at two resolutions: 1365 x 1024 and 800 x 600 pixels.

The original edition is for PCs running Windows 95/98/2000/XP or NT 4.0. A web browser edition is also now available for Macs, PCs or any computer with a web browser.

Badsey Publications prices: £28 (single user, one edition) or £84 (discs for both editions with site licence) plus £2 carriage. Published 2001/2007. ISBN 0954656210 (original edition), 0954656245 (web browser edition).

Key Curriculum Press publish an American edition of the Problem Pictures CD-ROM with the title Mathematical World.

Here are some sample screens reproduced half the original size. The first two are task pages and the third is an example of an information page.

More examples of the photographs and activities appear in the centrefold of the ATM journal Mathematics Teaching 181 (December 2002).

What is the difference between the two CD-ROMs?