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Difficulty: Tricky Jack is making a quilt from only square patches of fabric. For every 4 patches he sews together, 1 patch is blue and 3 patches are red. Once they are added to the quilt, all of the patches are 5 cm in width and length. Jack wants to make a quilt that is […]

Flora likes to run up stairs as fast as she can! Sometimes she lands on every stair and sometimes she skips a stair, taking two in one stride. This gets her thinking: how many different ways can she run up a staircase?

Lavonne is testing a secret code with her friend Jack. First, she picks 3 different secret numbers between 1 and 9. Then she finds the sum of each pair of numbers. Lavonne wants to know if Jack can figure out the original secret numbers just from the sums?

Holly loves drawing and her favourite colours have been sharpened a lot. Her most favourite colour, rose, is exactly 3cm long. She discovers that the teal pencil is exactly 4cm, and the almond pencil is exactly 6cm. What lengths from 1-10 cm can Holly make with her pencils?

In 2023, Double Helix readers busted a bunch of brainteasers! Here are the tippy-top, most popular puzzles of the year.

Can you find a different set of 5 positive whole numbers with the same stats?

The Great Barrier Reef is one of Earth’s 7 natural wonders. We’re wondering if you’ll be a natural at this quiz! Wade into the Reef’s fantastic ecology and aim for a dive out of five.

Difficulty: Fun Ellen has a set of 6 weights that come in pairs. One pair is a magical set of negative weights (think helium balloons that take weight away). 2 of the weights are 1 kilogram each, 2 of the weights are 5 kilograms each, and the 2 magical weights are -3 kilograms each. Ellen […]

Difficulty: Fun Triangular numbers are numbers that can be formed into a triangle. For example, 3 is a triangular number with 2 dots on the bottom row and 1 dot on top row forming an equilateral triangle of 3 dots. 6 is the next triangular number with 3 dots on the bottom, 2 dots in […]

Difficulty: Tricky Anas is making a map of his friend group. In his map, each circle is a person. A line joins 2 circles if and only if those 2 people are friends. Using the clues below, can you figure out who goes where on the map? 1. Anas has 3 friends: Ruth, Mitra, and […]