mathematical puzzle
- Do not confuse with mathematical games, which are two-or-more-player games involving a goal to be reached by both players. Although puzzles are often referred to as mathematical games, here they will not be so called.
Mathematical puzzles are an important part of recreational mathematics. These are any problems which call for a solution to a puzzle. In most puzzles, there is no interaction between two sides who are trying to achieve a goal before the other, but rather one (or no) person trying to find a solution that satisfies conditions in a problem. This includes many things, one of the most common being logic puzzles.
There is also the smaller group of so called "puzzles" that are just an interesting thing or pattern such as Conway's Game of Life or fractals.
List of mathematical puzzles
The following categories are not disjoint; some puzzles fall into more than one category.
Numbers, arithmetic, and algebra
Combinatorial
- Cryptograms
- Fifteen Puzzle
- Rubik's Cube and other
sequential movement puzzles - Sudoku
- Think-a-Dot
- Tower of Hanoi
Probability
Tiling, packing, and disection
- Mutilated chessboard problem
- the generic Packing problem
- tiling Pentominoes
- Tangram
- Soma cube
Involves a board
Chessboard tasks
Topology, knots, graph theory
The fields of knot theory and topology, especially their non-intuitive conclusions, are often seen as a part of recreational mathematics.
Disentanglement puzzles - Seven Bridges of Königsberg
- Water, gas, and electricity
Mechanical
- Main article:
Mechanical puzzle
- Rubik's Cube
- Think-a-Dot
- Many others
0-player puzzles
Other
External Links
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