Skip to main content.

Nick's Mathematical Puzzles

Welcome to my selection of mathematical puzzles.  I aim to add one new puzzle each week, so please stop by again.

What's new?  See puzzles 93 onwards.

The puzzles presented here are selected for the deceptive simplicity of their statement, or the elegance of their solution.  They range over geometry, probability, number theory, algebra, calculus, trigonometry, and logic.  All require a certain ingenuity, but usually only pre-college math.  Some puzzles are original.

Explaining how an answer is arrived at is more important than the answer itself.  To this end, hints, answers, and fully worked solutions are provided, together with links to related mathematical topics.  Further references are provided with many of the solutions.  The puzzles are intended to be fun, with an educational element.

The source for each problem is found at the bottom of the solution page.  I usually provide only a proximate credit; some math puzzles have been around for so long it can be difficult to trace their provenance.  However, if I know the original source, such as when a puzzle is a recognised mathematical theorem, I credit that source.

I welcome feedback of any kind.  Should you find a puzzle ambiguous, a hint misleading, an answer incorrect, or a solution unclear, please let me know.  I also welcome new math puzzles.

Some brief biographical information.  I gained a maths degree from a British university in the 1980s.  I've worked in computer software since then, but I retain a keen interest in mathematics and in education.

Nick

Featured in ENC's Digital Dozen, June 2004 and August 2003.Selected as 'cool math site of the week' by the Canadian Mathematical Society (Knot 281).Featured in Math Forum @ Drexel's Internet Mathematics Library.

Nick Hobson
[email protected]
Email Nick.Valid XHTML 1.0 Strict.
Last updated: November 11, 2004