Questions tagged [math-puzzle]

Questions related to small scale mathematical questions that are often pursued for recreation purposes and require novel (to the participant) and compelling problem solving approaches.

Filter by
Sorted by
Tagged with
5 votes
4 answers
273 views

How to convince parents that Mathematical puzzles/games help students in their academics too

I write content and conduct workshops for an education firm and also in schools where I try to make them realise how beautifully mathematics and rational thinking complement each other (on elementary ...
Vidyanshu Mishra's user avatar
4 votes
3 answers
144 views

Suggestion and advices [closed]

In my country the education system is very expensive, so I’m considering starting an organization to teach lower-income students for free. In particular, to motivate them into the science fields. So, ...
Mohammed Rizqallah's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
98 views

What's the age recomendation for my app?

I've developed an android math game called MathLab that has started to gain popularity. It's a simple fill-in-the-grid puzzle with variable cell sizes and locking cells. My daughter's math teacher got ...
Nick's user avatar
  • 111
4 votes
2 answers
189 views

Does solving crosswords help with recall of definitions?

I have an idea to help with self-study and recall of definitions. It is to create a crossword where the clues are the definitions and the words to solve are the concepts being defined. I haven't ...
user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
192 views

Easy and good book on combinatorial problems

I am searching for a book on combinatorics and/or mathematical puzzles for very beginners in easy English. The book should not contain detail mathematical expressions, will contain easy understanding ...
LSG's user avatar
  • 161
12 votes
3 answers
1k views

Challenge questions for extremely bright kids

I suppose this is the place for my questions as much as any place is: I'm a math student coming on my 3rd year of undergrad, and I am working as a counselor at a Summer math camp. The camp is for 12-...
AJY's user avatar
  • 221
5 votes
1 answer
136 views

Logic/Mathematics problems for training

Where I live, there is this competition called the "Känguru Wettbewerb" (german), in English, that would be "Kangaroo Competition". This is a mathematics competition where the goal is to solve ...
detergent's user avatar
16 votes
4 answers
1k views

Explaining the "siblings" paradox

This is a question I originally posted on Math Stackexchange. I've just seen a very good discussion of Monty Hall problem, and someone mentioned the "siblings" paradox. I've had some success ...
PA6OTA's user avatar
  • 261
46 votes
24 answers
19k views

How to explain Monty Hall problem when they just don't get it

Talking to some friends, I was asked to explain the answer to the Monty Hall problem (see also here;) .... they were having some trouble because whoever explained it to them didn't do a very good job. ...
Tutor's user avatar
  • 921
11 votes
3 answers
426 views

Playful problems in mathematics

This answer describes an analogy between finite state machines and mazes. This allows for some playful exercises, like Draw a representation of a word accepted by the following automaton... which ...
dtldarek's user avatar
  • 8,817
21 votes
16 answers
3k views

Tricks for computing things in your head

There are quite a lot of tricks/shortcuts enabling doing calculations efficiently in your head. (One of them that came to me today is the "squaring a number ending with a 5" trick I wrote about in ...
mbork's user avatar
  • 1,289
6 votes
4 answers
532 views

Are puzzles a good way to interest pre-college students?

Nothing more quickly disspitates the myth that most people aren't interested in math than hitting them with a good puzzle and watching the instinctive human urge to solve it get to work. To be fair, ...
Jack M's user avatar
  • 1,307
6 votes
2 answers
1k views

Puzzles for Logic Courses featuring propositional logic and set theory?

Puzzles are interesting form of exercises. They help students to learn the teaching material in a funny way. Particularly in logic, puzzles could be very useful to show the complexity of the subject. ...
user avatar
10 votes
4 answers
1k views

Examples of Good Mathematical Games for a Mathematical Olympic

As a crazy idea in a coffee break after a boring lecture I suggested my students and colleges that we can have some fun in our department by participating in a "Mathematical Olympic Games". They ...
user avatar