Puzzles with shapes and sticks
Pigs need their pens
Farmer Black raises pigs and was raising them in modular pens, He currently has 6 pigs in the following arrangement:
He needed some walls for another project so he rearranged the pins like this:
He then found out he need 7 more wall pieces to finish his project. How did he rearrange the pens so that there was only 1 pig per pen?
See the Solution >>Coin triangle
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Move only three coins and turn the triangle upside down. Click here for the answer, but not before you've thought about it! |
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Dots in a square
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This is one of my favorites! It is a simple puzzle, but illustrates beautifully the idea of "thinking outside the box." Join all the dots using four straight lines and without lifting your pencil. Click here for the answer, but think about it first! |
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Pentagon & star
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How many triangles are there in this pentagon? See the Solution >> |
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Trees in rows
A gardener planted 10 trees in five rows. Each row had four trees in it. How did he do this?
Click here for the answer, but don't peek too early—give it a good honest try first!
A matchstick puzzle
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Move 3 matches to show 2 squares. See the Solution >> |
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Shuffle the Sticks!
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Can you make five triangles by rearranging the nine sticks shown below? See Solution >> |
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Stick Spiral
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These fifteen sticks form a spiral. Can you turn this spiral into two squares by moving exactly three sticks? See Solution >> |
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Turn the fish
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Here you see a fish swimming to the left. Move three sticks and make the fish to swim in the opposite direction (to the right). See Solution >> |
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Cuddling Coins
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The pattern of coins shown on the left must be transformed into the pattern shown on the right, by moving exactly three coins, where at the end of each move each coin needs to touch with at least two other coins. The coins must be moved flat on the table (coins cannot move over each other). How can this be done? See Solution >> |
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Penny through the Paper
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Take a coin from your wallet (a 1 or 2 Rupee piece works best). Take a piece of paper and cut a circular hole in it middle, which is slightly smaller than the size of the coin (a diameter which is roughly 80% of the diameter of the coin, see picture). See Solution >> |
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Squared Sticks
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Sixteen sticks form five squares. Can you make four squares from this by moving two sticks? See Solution >> |
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Stick Shapes
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Can you form three touching triangles from the pattern shown below, by moving exactly three sticks? See Solution >> |
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Mathematical Sticks
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The equation shown below is not correct.
This equation can be balanced by removing three sticks. There are three ways to do this. Which are these three ways? See Solution >> |
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Stick Stars
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Eighteen sticks form a star with eight triangles (six small ones and two large ones).
How can just two sticks be moved to make four small triangles and two large ones? See Solution >> |
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