Puzzle

Exercise the Brainwith Puzzles

Last Updated Oct 5, 2008 00:23 PM

The rec.puzzles archive
The rec.puzzles archive offers many classic mind-benders, categorized by subject area. Among the two dozen subject areas you'll find are analogies, cryptograms, language puzzles, logic puzzles, problems of probability, riddles, and trivia puzzles. You might want to preview this site, however. Students will love it, but some of the oldies are a little bloody. Three sample puzzles appear below.
6. Bear (a geometry puzzle): If a hunter goes out his front door, goes 50 miles south, then goes 50 miles west, shoots a bear, goes 50 miles north and ends up in front of his house, what color was the bear?
7. Logic Puzzle 29: Three people check into a hotel. They pay the manager $30 and go to their room. The manager finds out that the room rate is $25 and gives $5 to the bellboy to return to the guests. On the way to the room, the bellboy decides that $5 would be difficult to share among three people so he pockets $2 and gives $1 to each person. Now each person has paid $10 and gotten $1 back. So each guest paid $9, for a total of $27, and the bellboy has $2 -- for a total of $29. Where is the other dollar?

8. Riddle 8: I know a word of letters three. Add two and fewer there will be.

Dr. Matrix' Web World of Science
Some puzzles are classics, such as The Fork in the Road. Others, such as The Counterfeit Coins, offer new twists on old classics. Which ones can you solve?
9. A vacationer finds himself on an island inhabited by two tribes. Members of one tribe always tell the truth. Members of the other tribe always lie. The vacationer comes to a fork in a road and asks a native which branch he should take to reach a village. He doesn't know whether the native is a truth-teller or a liar. The vacationer thinks a moment, then asks one question. From the reply he knows which road to take. What question does he ask?
10. You have ten stacks of coins, each consisting of ten half-dollars. One of those stacks is counterfeit, but you don't know which. You do know the weight of a genuine half-dollar and you know that each counterfeit coin weighs 1 gram more than it should. You may weigh the coins. What is the fewest number of weighings you'll need to determine which stack is counterfeit?

thinks.com -- brain games, puzzles, and pastimes website
While you're trying to figure out the answer to the last puzzle, don't miss the puzzles at thinks.com. Click on Go Puzzles and you'll find a number of different kinds of puzzles, including Puzzles by Sam Lloyd and Doublets. Can you solve them? check style
11. The Milkman's Puzzle: Honest John says, "What I don't know about milk is scarcely worth mentioning," but he is flabbergasted one day when each of two ladies asks him for 2 quarts of milk. One lady has a 5-quart pail and the other has a 4-quart pail. John has only two 10-gallon cans, each full of milk. How does he measure out exactly 2 quarts of milk for each lady?
12. Doublets: Change only one letter at a time to turn MILK into PAIL and MICE into RATS.

MORE PUZZLES -- MOSTLY VISUAL
The following sites include multiple -- and worthwhile -- puzzles, but most are too visual to show here. You'll just have to visit them!

Brain Games, from Neuroscience for Kids, includes Brain Hieroglyphics, On-Line Response Time experiments, a crossword puzzle, a memory game, and more. Can you recognize the upside down faces?

Memory Click any of the titles next to Online Exhibits for a variety of memory games from the Exploratorium Online. Here you can try to name the head under Elvis's hair, identify the Droodles, or remember what you see.

Mega Mathematics This long-time favorite is terrific for students in grades 4 and above. Visitors can stay at Hotel Infinity, stage a play at Unusual School, or unravel knotty dilemmas at Untangling the Mathematics of Knots. The problems here take longer to set up, but they're worth it. Each one includes a comprehensive teaching plan -- but your students won't notice.

Greg's Brain Games Students will enjoy the interactive brainteasers and Plexers at this site. Don't know what a Plexer is? Check it out.

Imagiware Games This site provides several brain-busting games, including Master Web, a game of logic in which the object is to decipher the code represented by a series of colored balls.

Illusions is a terrific site loaded with information about illusions. Check it out, then go to the Illusion Puzzles and try to solve them.

Mathpuzzle.com provides a Puzzle of the Week that's definitely not for beginners. The list of links is as comprehensive as you'll find anywhere, but most of the puzzles are for older students and adults.
Don't stop yet! The Web offers plenty of exercises to help your students keep their brains in shape. Check them out whenever you or your students need a boost.


ADDITIONAL PUZZLE RESOURCES

Brother Bear's Brain Teasers includes two brainteasers for young children.

Build-a-Monster Young children match heads, torsos, and feet to create a dinosaur.

Elementary School Math Problems, Puzzles, Tips & Tricks, Middle School Math Problems, Puzzles, Tips & Tricks, andHigh School Math Problems, Puzzles, Tips & Tricks from the Math Forum contain links to lots of puzzle sites. The sites include manipulative, visual, and word puzzles.

Lesson Plans At this Educast site, choose brainteasers from one or more grade ranges -- K through 3, 4 through 6, or 7 through 12. Then click Search to find a number of problems and activities. A downloadable activity sheet is provided for each problem. These are fun, but the learning is obvious.

Funbrain.com provides puzzles and games for students from 6 to 15, at several levels of difficulty. These puzzles are subject-based but fun.

Sound Puzzles Word Finder provides a new puzzle every day for students in middle school and above. Each puzzle consists of three parts requiring a variety of language skills. Solvers have to visit every day, however, since this site doesn't have an archive.

Brain Awareness Week provides a crossword puzzle, a word scramble, and a name game for students in grade 5 and above.

I think...therefore...M.I.: Internet Links for Exercising Your Multiple Intelligences (M.I.) Lots of links, games, and activities geared toward different intelligences -- verbal, mathematical, physical, musical, visual, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and existential.

BRAIN RESOURCES FOR KIDS

Amazing Brain Facts: Index Includes lots of information about the brain, written for kids in small word bites!

Jay's Brain This Discovery Channel site features experiments to find out how the brain works as well as other brain-related articles and activities.

Neuroscience for Kids A great resource on the nervous system, this site includes an explanation of the development, structure, and function of the brain, written in language that kids can understand.

NeuroLab Online invites classrooms around the world to join NASA personnel as they prepare for the NeuroLab mission, which will conduct brain research to study neurological and behavioral changes in space.

Inside Brian's Brain is a serialization of the interactive comic book

See also Puzzle 682 1 - 9