Miscellaneous Puzzles | AIMS Center for Math and Science Education

Green Wall Challenge #1

This first problem comes in two parts, and a bit of mind reading. The parts are different in obvious ways. Solve them both, then read my mind, to do this you may have to ponder for a while the nature of the two parts of the challenge already completed. The winning solution will describe accurately what it is I am aiming for. It isn’t terribly deep, so give it a go in the spirit of fun and joy it is meant. First Problem The Lion, Llama, and Lettuce tri-lemma. There once was a farmer who was taking three items to ...
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Miscellaneous Puzzles

Cups and Downs

Posted on June 23, 2014 by Dave Youngs • 0 Comments

This week’s Puzzle Corner activity is a magic trick with a mathematical, as well as a slight-of-hand, component. I first came across this trick in one of Martin Gardner’s many books on recreational mathematics. I liked it so much that I have been stumping students, friends, and family members with it ever since. In order to make… Continue Reading

Are All Sides Equal

Posted on May 6, 2014 by Dave Youngs • 0 Comments

The object of this puzzle is to place ten pennies (or other small objects) along the sides of the activity sheet so that each side has exactly the same number. There are several different ways that this can be done. After students have found the solution(s) for ten pennies, they record it. They are then… Continue Reading

Tower Trade

Posted on March 3, 2014 by Dave Youngs • 0 Comments

Tower Trade is a paper adaptation to the traditionally wooden Towers of Hanoi puzzle. In the classic version, a wooden base supports three equally spaced dowels, usually aligned in a row, although the earliest version of this puzzle is reputed to have had the dowels arranged in an equilateral triangle. Six – this number varies —… Continue Reading

Three in a Row

Posted on November 25, 2013 by Dave Youngs • 1 Comment

Three in a Row is a two-person game played on a 3 x 3 square grid using six markers. Each player needs three markers which can be easily distinguished from those of the other player. Coins, beans, buttons, checkers, math chips, or any other small manipulatives will all work well. The object of the game is… Continue Reading

Total Count-Ability

Posted on September 16, 2013 by Dave Youngs • 2 Comments

How many different answers can you find and justify for the nursery rhyme Going to St. Ives? As I was going to St. Ives I met a man with seven wives. Every wife had seven sacks, Every sack had seven cats, Every cat had seven kits. Kits, cats, sacks and wives, How many were going… Continue Reading

Ocean Anagrams

Posted on August 12, 2013 by Dave Youngs • 0 Comments

This week’s Puzzle Corner activity has an ocean theme. In it, students are presented with a number of anagrams. Anagrams are words or collections of words whose letters are rearranged to form new words or collections of words. For example, an anagram for canoe is ocean. Anagrams have a long history in the puzzle community. Lewis Carroll, who was really… Continue Reading

The Age Game

Posted on July 8, 2013 by Dave Youngs • 1 Comment

This puzzle features a series of computations involving, among other factors, the student’s own age and birth month. After the computations are completed, students are asked to find a pattern in their answers. This is best done in groups and is not difficult if no computational errors have been made. After students have discovered the… Continue Reading

How Many Squares?

Posted on June 3, 2013 by Dave Youngs • 1 Comment

In this week’s puzzle students are asked to find out how many squares are in the figure shown. This is not a difficult puzzle, but it does require some careful observation, organization, and counting. I encourage you to turn to the puzzle right now and give it a try before reading on. This will help… Continue Reading

Time Marches On

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Dave Youngs • 0 Comments

This week’s Puzzle Corner activity is a simple problem with surprising results. The question posed in the puzzle is: “How many times during a day (24 hours) do the hour and minute hands of a clock point in the same direction?” The obvious answer seems to be 24, yet this is not correct. Students are… Continue Reading