Something in Common
These words all have an unusual property in common, what is it?
These words all have an unusual property in common, what is it?
A man is throwing rocks off a boat floating in the middle of a lake. The rocks sink quickly to the bottom of the lake. Does the water level in the lake rise, fall, or stay the same after the…
In some cultures, it is typical for guests at an event to shake hands when they meet other guests (when there isn’t a pandemic). Some might be more social and shake hands with a lot of other guests, while others…
Move exactly 1 match to make this a valid equation. In matchstick math puzzles, you are not allowed to make an inequality symbol such as ≠, ≥, >, <, or ≤. That would make it too easy!
White to play and mate in 2.
The middle four letters of these 8-letter words are shown. Can you figure out the full 8-letter words? There may be multiple suitable answers for some of the words.
How many ways can white mate in 1 move?
Above are two identical isosceles right triangles containing two inscribed squares. In one, a perfect square has been inscribed such that two sides line up with the two legs of the right triangle. In the other, a perfect square has…
White to play and mate in 2.
Compound words are words that are composed of two or more other words, like high + light = highlight. Can you make compound words out of the following three words by adding the same 4-letter word to each of them?
What is the smallest number you can make by moving exactly 2 matches above?
Compound words are words that are composed of two or more other words, like high + light = highlight. Can you make compound words out of the following three words by adding the same 4-letter word to each of them?
I am thinking of a 3-digit number. When you reverse the digits of this number, you get a bigger number, and if you add that to the original number, the sum is 463. What was the number I was thinking…
There are n playing cards lined up face-down in a row. Every turn, a pair of adjacent cards with the left card face-down is randomly selected (i.e., a pair of cards has no chance of being selected if the left…
Two kids are playing around with their drinks at lunch. One has 200ml of milk and the other has 200ml of chocolate milk. They scoop 20ml of chocolate milk into the milk glass, then they scoop 20ml of whatever is…
A teacher gives three clever students in her class a challenge: she writes down 3 different numbers on 3 index cards, and has each student hold up one of the cards to their forehead such that they can’t see their…
Move exactly 1 match to make this a valid equation. Bonus: find two different ways to solve this. In matchstick math puzzles, you are not allowed to make an inequality symbol such as ≠, ≥, >, <, or ≤. That…
A kid is adding consecutive integers on a calculator, one at a time, starting with 1 + 2 + 3 + … and so on. At one point you notice the sum is now 100, but that shouldn’t be possible…
Can you figure out the number I am thinking of? Some cryptic clues: If you have all the answers right, that’s only about 33% percent of the solution: you need to justify them too. Some clues were left over, so…
Out of all whole numbers between one and five thousand, there is only one number that has a unique number of letters when you spell it out. What number is it? Include spaces and dashes. For example, “twenty-four” and “two…
A mother randomly selected two of her children to pick up a package from the post office. There was a 50% chance both children were daughters. How many daughters does this mother most likely have?
What common word or phrase is this rebus referring to?
You have four good/new batteries and four bad/used batteries but don’t know which are which. You have a flashlight that uses two batteries, which will only work if both batteries are good – if it doesn’t work, you won’t know…
What is the length of the longest stick?
What hidden word can be found among these pairs of words?