mscroggs.co.uk
mscroggs.co.uk

subscribe

Puzzles

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

15 December

There are 3 even numbers between 3 and 9.
What is the only odd number \(n\) such that there are \(n\) even numbers between \(n\) and 729?

Show answer & extension

14 December

Holly draws a line of connected regular pentagons like this:
She continues the pattern until she has drawn 204 pentagons. The perimeter of each pentagon is 5. What is the perimeter of her line of pentagons?

Show answer

Tags: pentagons

13 December

Today's number is given in this crossnumber. The across clues are given as normal, but the down clues are given in a random order: you must work out which clue goes with each down entry and solve the crossnumber to find today's number. No number in the completed grid starts with 0.

Show answer

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

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

Archive

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