For the last couple of days, I have been playing around with this geometry puzzle. If you have a student in geometry or higher math, I recommend you print out the original post (but not the comments — it’s no fun when someone gives you the answer!) and see what he or she can do with it.
[MathNotations offers many other puzzles for 7-12th grade math students. While you are at his blog, take some time to browse past articles.]
[In the last episode, Alexandria Jones, daughter of the world-famous archaeologist, caught her father’s arch-enemy trying to uncover the Pharaoh’s Treasure.]
…”I can’t believe it!” Simon Skulk threw down the last stone in disgust and walked away. At the mouth of the cave, he turned back and shook his fist. “You haven’t seen the last of me, Alexandria Jones.”
Her muscles aching, Alex sank to the ground and hugged her dog. The she gave him a little push toward the front of the cave. “Rammy, go get Dad.”
Ramus barked once and took off running.
Alex turned back to look at the Pharaoh’s Treasure. Where the last stone had stood was a hole. In the hole lay three wooden sticks, like tent pegs, and a long loop of rope with 12 evenly-spaced knots.
What could it be?
Continue reading The Secret of the Pharaoh’s Treasure, Part 2
If you enjoy Raymond Smullyan’s The Lady or the Tiger and similar puzzles, you will probably have fun with this Logic test, posted by JD2718. JD has a wide variety of other math puzzles at his site, so take the time to browse a bit.
Are your students ready for a challenge?
The Math Forum: 2007 Mathematics Game will be a tricky one:
Use the digits in the year 2007 and the operations +, -, x, ÷, sqrt (square root), ^ (raise to a power), and ! (factorial), along with grouping symbols, to write expressions for the counting numbers 1 through 100.
- All four digits must be used in the expression.
- Only the digits 2, 0, 0, 7 may be used.
- Multi-digit numbers such as 20, 207, or .02 MAY be used this year.
- The square function may NOT be used.
- The integer function may NOT be used.
Denise Gaskins' Let's Play Math 