A version of this puzzle originally appeared in the October 1960 issue of Scientific American.

Math is not everyone’s favorite, understandably. Hours of math homework and difficult equations can make anyone sour on the subject. But when math problems are outside of a school setting, there’s no ...

The inside of a bus may not seem like the ideal place to rekindle your interest in math, but a group of mathematicians is betting it will. Last month, the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute of ...

Brain teasers are a fun way to test one's thinking skills. These puzzles give the brain a quick workout. A recent challenge that went viral online has math lovers excited. The puzzle asks users to ...

The missing number is 1,620. The digits in the tens places (green in the figure below) of the numbers in columns 1, 2, 4 and 5 are added together. The total value is represented by the digits in the ...

Imagine someone handing you a scrap of net from a basketball hoop, with knotted red cord attached to the netting, and telling you this bit of string is a clue in a puzzle. How quickly — if ever — ...

A brain teaser is a short, playful puzzle designed to make your mind stretch and smile. It could be a riddle, a tricky question, a visual illusion, or a logic twist that nudges you to think beyond the ...

There’s an old puzzle that requires the solver to form as many whole numbers as possible, starting with 1, using only the digit 4 exactly four times, together with ordinary arithmetic and algebraic ...

Optical illusions and visual puzzles are all the rage these days due to their ability to enthrall social media users. These brain teasers improve cognitive functions and are a fun way to pass the time ...