Category Archives: Puzzles

Puzzle #28: Cake Cutting

Posted on August 24, 2013 by Alok Goyal

This is a puzzle that I have seen in many different sources, a nice geometry puzzle! Mary baked a rectangular cake. Merlin secretly carved out a small rectangular piece, ate it and vanished! The remaining cake has to be split … Continue reading →

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Puzzle #27: The 3 Matchsticks Heaps

Posted on August 11, 2013 by Alok Goyal

This puzzle is a nice and again a relatively easy one, and the beauty is that children and adults should both enjoy this one. I found this in a puzzle book I bought way back in 1985 – Mathematics can … Continue reading →

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Puzzle #26: Get to the number 14

Posted on August 3, 2013 by Alok Goyal

This is a relatively simple arithmetic puzzle, that I found interesting to do with my 9 year old. I picked this up from Mathematical Circles. Here is the puzzle: You begin with the number 458. You are only allowed two … Continue reading →

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Puzzle #25: Eleven Matches

Posted on July 28, 2013 by Alok Goyal

This is a very nice “game puzzle” and I would encourage all of you to actually play the game, especially children. The puzzle is from “The Moscow Puzzles” by Boris A. Kordemsky, Chapter X. This puzzle is relevant for all … Continue reading →

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Puzzle #24: Where On Earth Are We?

Posted on July 21, 2013 by Alok Goyal

This is another classic puzzle which can be found in many different books – a highly recommended puzzle for your children to help them think n 3-dimensions and explain some special properties of a sphere. How many points are there … Continue reading →

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Puzzle #23: Yet Another Magic Square

Posted on July 14, 2013 by Alok Goyal

I came across this rather interesting “magical” square – let’s see if you can figure out the trick behind this. This is good for all ages. In general, magic square refers to a grid of numbers where each row, column … Continue reading →

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Puzzle #22: Cutting the Cube

Posted on July 6, 2013 by Alok Goyal

This is a puzzle picked up from one of Martin Gardner collections. Might be just a touch difficult for kids, but worth trying. A carpenter, working with a buzz saw, wishes to cut a wooden cube, three inches on a … Continue reading →

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Puzzle #21: Stuck on the Roof (A Lateral thinking problem)…

Posted on June 15, 2013 by Alok Goyal

This is a very nice lateral thinking problem I picked up from this wonderful collection of puzzles (http://gurmeet.net/puzzles/). Rajeev is trapped atop a building 200m high. He has with him a rope 150m long. There is a hook at the … Continue reading →

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Puzzle #20: The Monty Hall Problem (Very Interesting – Must try!)

Posted on June 9, 2013 by Alok Goyal

This is a puzzle I picked up from the Movie “21” that I was watching 2 days back. The scene is a class in MIT, where the professor gives this problem to one of the students. Here it goes: Suppose … Continue reading →

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Puzzle #19: Find the Average Salary

Posted on June 2, 2013 by Alok Goyal

This is one of the best puzzles I have posted, and would highly encourage all of you to try it – kids as well as adults. Four honest and hard-working computer engineers are sipping coffee at Starbucks. They wish to … Continue reading →

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