Ants on a Log
Here’s a cool puzzle, from Mudd Fun Facts, which is a great website for finding lots of cool math problems, which appear to be mostly at the high school level and beyond (many either require calculus,...
View ArticleA Deceptively Hard Puzzle
Check out the newest puzzle from jd2718’s blog, entitled “Last One Left Over“. It asks: The digits from 0 - 9 are separated into 3 groups: A (0, 1, 2, 3); B (4, 5, 6); C (7, 8, 9). Digits are...
View ArticleIs this a Permutation Question or a Combination Question?
Today I had my middle schoolers working on some of the new MATHCOUNTS Club problems. One of them was the following: A bracelet is made by stringing together four beads. Each bead is either red or...
View ArticlePerfect Square Factors
Here’s a cute little problem from the MATHCOUNTS 2002-2003 School Handbook, Counting and Combinatorics Stretch: How many perfect square factors does the number 46,656 have? Related Post: Some...
View ArticleMiddle Three Digits
This question was Colombia State University’s Problem of the Week on December 03, 2007. It was also, according to this list, the problem for which the lowest percentage of solutions submitted was...
View ArticleDice Puzzle
I’m not sure how I came across the jeka-math blog, but it contains a lot of higher-level math problems. And a few that seem intriguingly easy, but turn out to be quite tricky, like this one in which...
View ArticleGreat Source of Middle School or High School Problems
I just found MathsChallenge.net thanks to a link at Maria’s Homeschool Math Site. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be getting updated anymore, but the “latest” page linked above contains 20...
View ArticleKakuro for Kids (and grown-ups too)
Cross Sums, now trendily known as Kakuro, have always been my favorite pencil puzzle. I also think they’re great for students. They involve practice in logical reasoning, mental math, and summing...
View ArticleFill In the Number Puzzles
Danielle posted a question on my About page that I thought I’d answer in a separate post. She wrote: Hi MathMom! I have a question… my daughter gets number triangles for math warm-up. E.g. Use each...
View Article2010 Puzzlers
I asked my middle schoolers to design problems involving the number 2010 to share with a partner. I ended up being the logical person to be my 13yo son’s partner. This is what he gave me. I haven’t...
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