By David Shaw, 7 December 2020
Difficulty: Extreme I’m thinking of a number. When you add one and a half to it, you get the same result as if you multiplied it by one and a half. What’s the number I’m thinking of?
Categories:
By David Shaw, 25 November 2020
By Rok Willesee Difficulty: Fun An engineer has asked you to help him count the number of triangles in this roof truss. He thinks there are five, but his boss thinks there are more. How many triangles can you see?
By Fiona Midson, 11 November 2020
Difficulty: Tricky Abelina and Ben bought a bag of jelly beans, and decided to split it. When they shared the jelly beans out, they split evenly and there wasn’t any remainder.
By David Shaw, 28 October 2020
By Rok Willesee Difficulty: Tricky A scientist was looking back at notes they made about their experiments. Unfortunately, in one experiment the scales didn’t work. Can you help them work out what the weight should be in the final experiment?
By David Shaw, 22 October 2020
Here’s a quick sliding puzzle to get your brain pumping. See if you can separate the light and dark counters in as few moves as possible!
By David Shaw, 14 October 2020
Difficulty: Taxing Jenny found a strange sum written on a piece of paper: EGG + EGG = PAGE Each letter represents a different digit, so P might be 1, for example. Can you work out what the sum really is?
By David Shaw, 30 September 2020
Difficulty: Taxing Grab a calculator (or a pen and paper) Choose a three-digit number (e.g. 123) Multiply it by 7 Multiply the answer by 11 Multiply that answer by 13 You will get your starting number written out twice! (e.g. 123 123) The question is, can you work out why?
By David Shaw, 16 September 2020
Difficulty: Tricky We’re going to make a magic triangle! Take the numbers 1–6 and arrange them in a triangle with three numbers on each side. Swap them around until the sides all add up to the same number.
By David Shaw, 26 August 2020
Difficulty: Taxing Here’s a beautiful artwork from 1895, titled Mental calculation. In public school of S. A. Rachinsky, painted by Nikolay Bogdanov-Belsky. Can you solve the puzzle the kids are pondering? If you can’t quite see the equation, here it is:
By David Shaw, 20 August 2020
Craft yourself a mathematical ring to learn about straight lines on donuts. Don’t laugh, they do exist!
12 months, 8 issues
Print & digital subscriptions available.
Sign up to our Double Helix newsletter
Stay in touch with new updates by signing up to our free newsletter
Perfect for ages 8 – 14
Developed by experienced editors
Engaging and motivating
*84% of readers are more interested in science
Engaging students voice