mscroggs.co.uk
mscroggs.co.uk

subscribe

Puzzles

23 December

How many numbers are there between 100 and 1000 that contain no 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4?

Show answer

22 December

Ivy makes a sequence by starting with the number 35, then repeatedly making the next term by reversing the digits of the current number and adding 6. The first few terms of this sequence are:
$$35$$ $$53+6 = 59$$ $$95+6 = 101$$
What is the first number in Ivy's sequence that is smaller than the previous term?

Show answer

Tags: numbers

21 December

In the annual tournament of Christmas puzzles, each player must play one puzzle match against each other player. Last year there were four entrants into the tournament (A, B, C, and D), and so 6 matches were played: A vs B, C vs D, A vs D, A vs C, D vs B, and finally B vs C.
This year, the tournament has grown in popularity and 22 players have entered. How many matches will be played this year?

Show answer

20 December

The diagram to the right shows (two copies of) quadrilateral ABCD.
The sum of the angles ABC and BCD (green and blue in quadrilateral on the left) is 180°. The sum of the angles ABC and DAB (green and orange in quadrilateral on the left) is also 180°. In the diagram on the right, a point inside the quadrilateral has been used to draw two triangles.
The area of the quadrilateral is 850. What is the smallest that the total area of the two triangles could be?

Show answer

19 December

120 is the smallest number with exactly 16 factors (including 1 and 120 itself).
What is the second smallest number with exactly 16 factors (including 1 and the number itself)?

Show answer

18 December

Noel writes the integers from 1 to 1000 in a large triangle like this:
The number 12 is directly below the number 6. Which number is directly below the number 133?

Show answer

Tags: numbers

17 December

Put the digits 1 to 9 (using each digit exactly once) in the boxes so that the sums 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. Today's number is the product of the numbers in the red boxes.
++= 10
+ × ×
++= 12
+ +
++= 23
=
10
=
12
=
23

Show answer

Tags: numbers, grids

16 December

Noel writes the integers from 1 to 1000 in a large triangle like this:
The rightmost number in the row containing the number 6 is 9. What is the rightmost number in the row containing the number 300?

Show answer

Tags: numbers

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

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

Archive

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