mscroggs.co.uk
mscroggs.co.uk

subscribe

Puzzles

24 December

Today's number is the largest possible remainder which can be obtained when dividing one of the answers in this advent calendar by another answer smaller than it (not including today's answer!).

23 December

This number is a prime number. If you treble it and add 16, the result is also prime. Repeating this will give 11 prime numbers in total (including the number itself).

22 December

What is the largest number which cannot be written as the sum of distinct squares?

21 December

This year, I posted instructions for making a dodecahedron and a stellated rhombicuboctahedron.
To get today's number, multiply the number of modules needed to make a dodecahedron by half the number of tube maps used to make a stellated rhombicuboctahedron.

Show answer

20 December

Put the digits 1 to 9 (using each digit exactly once) in the boxes so that the sums reading across and down are correct. The sums should be read left to right and top to bottom ignoring the usual order of operations. For example, 4+3×2 is 14, not 10.
+-= 8
- - -
+÷= 9
+ ÷ ×
+×= 108
=
6
=
1
=
18
The answer is the product of the digits in the red boxes.

Show answer

Tags: numbers, grids

19 December

1 = 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 + 1/16 + 1/16. This is the sum of 5 unit fractions (the numerators are 1).
In how many different ways can 1 be written as the sum of 5 unit fractions? (the same fractions in a different order are considered the same sum.)

18 December

Put the digits 1 to 9 (using each digit once) in the boxes so that the three digit numbers formed (reading left to right and top to bottom) have the desired properties written by their rows and columns.
multiple of 9
multiple of 3
multiple of 5
multiple of 6multiple of 4cube number
Today's number is the multiple of 6 formed in the left hand column.

Show answer

Tags: numbers, grids

17 December

In March, I posted the puzzle One Hundred Factorial, which asked how many zeros 100! ends with.
What is the smallest number, n, such that n! ends with 50 zeros?

Archive

Show me a random puzzle
 Most recent collections 

Advent calendar 2025

Advent calendar 2024

Advent calendar 2023

Advent calendar 2022


List of all puzzles

Tags

range digits dominos wordplay elections square numbers tiling trigonometry arrows sets division shapes folding tube maps tangents factorials means speed dates grids geometric means neighbours routes 3d shapes axes cryptic crossnumbers planes integers functions chalkdust crossnumber determinants dice sum to infinity rugby medians quadrilaterals multiples colouring people maths lines probabilty symmetry christmas expansions odd numbers combinatorics consecutive numbers coins dodecagons mean prime numbers money ave perfect numbers pentagons angles triangles sequences complex numbers cube numbers volume area median shape integration ellipses irreducible numbers numbers decahedra pascal's triangle probability the only crossnumber doubling bases differentiation palindromes crossnumbers proportion clocks geometric mean circles quadratics square roots albgebra cubics partitions logic xor gerrymandering polygons polynomials indices multiplication geometry digital clocks calculus rectangles consecutive integers chocolate floors cards addition square grids digital products number hexagons factors games triangle numbers sport crosswords powers regular shapes remainders lists menace prime factors chess star numbers coordinates balancing matrices perimeter cryptic clues taxicab geometry fractions advent parabolas 2d shapes multiplaction squares spheres time sums tournaments graphs averages books algebra scales binary products surds even numbers squares percentages unit fractions

Archive

Show me a random puzzle
▼ show ▼
© Matthew Scroggs 2012–2026