We recently attended a gathering of mathematics coordinators who, collectively, are responsible for the education about a half a million students. We begin every gathering with some sort of math fun. This puzzle was introduced to us by our friend Jon. At the time of the video, we hadn’t yet learned of its actual name […]
A one-person game/Un juego de una persona Materials/Materiales One game board/Un tablero del juego 8 stones/8 piedras DIRECTIONS/INSTRUCCIONES Place eight stones in this shape so that NO two stones are in the same row, column, or diagonal (even the small diagonals). Coloque ocho piedras en la forma para que NINGUNA de las dos piedras estén […]
The tangram (Chinese: 七巧板; pinyin: qīqiǎobǎn; literally: ‘seven boards of skill’) is a dissection puzzle consisting of seven flat shapes, called tans, which are put together to form shapes. The objective of the puzzle is to form a specific shape (given only an outline or silhouette) using all seven pieces, which can not overlap. It […]
Similar to the basic version of NIM, two players alternate turns picking up tiles. The objective is still to force the opposing player to pick up the last tile. What is different is the arrangement of the tiles at the beginning of the game. Tiles are arranged into the shape of a tower, like so… […]
Sprouts is a paper-and-pencil game that can be enjoyed simply by both adults and children. Yet it also can be analyzed for its significant mathematical properties. It was invented by mathematicians John Horton Conway and Michael S. Paterson at Cambridge University in the early 1960s. Setup is even simpler than the popular Dots and Boxes […]
Three men’s morris is an abstract strategy game played on a three by three board (counting lines) that is similar to tic-tac-toe. Rules Each player has three pieces. The winner is the first player to align their three pieces on a line drawn on the board. There are 3 horizontal lines, 3 vertical lines […]
Tsoro Yematatu is a two-player that comes from Zimbabwe. Players first drop their three pieces onto the board, and then move those pieces to create a 3 in-a-row which wins the game. What makes this game more fun than traditional Tic-Tac-Toe is that pieces can jump over each other (without capture) which adds an extra dimension in the […]
NIM is a wonderful mathematics strategy game that has been around forever. At its most basic version, two players alternate turns taking objects from one or more piles. For each turn, a player removes at least one object. The winner of the game is the player who picks up the last object. Whenever I need […]