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I have four playing cards: two of them are black and two are red. I turn them face down so you can’t see the colours, and shuffle them so you don’t know which is which.

Many people know how to play solitaire or patience, but there are actually lots of different one-player card games. This version of patience has a bit of addition, and also some tricky strategic thinking.

You will need Two decks of cards. Younger mathematicians with small hands might have difficulty with a full sized deck of cards. Using smaller cards might be easier. If you’re still having difficulty, try asking an adult for help with shuffling. Overhand shuffle (for right-handed people) If you are left-handed, click here to see the…

Two centuries ago, nobody knew much about what made a single fertilised cell grow into a human. Or – for that matter – a dog, a sea urchin, a worm or a whale. The problem was nobody could imagine how a microscopic bag of chemicals could possibly split in half again and again, yet still…