Math Puzzles
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Math has been called the purest science there is. For many people, the manipulation of numbers in complex ways is tremendously satisfying. At the same time, math is often a course in school that many people dread, especially children and teenagers. But if you can make math fun, that can change your opinion about math entirely. Puzzles that easily incorporate math skills are great ways to add that level of fun and entertainment to math to take away the dread of manipulating numbers and relax the player until he or she realizes how really fun and useful manipulating numbers mathematically can be.
One of the classic math puzzles is Sudoku. The game is a study in simplicity and yet tremendously challenging and fun. On the surface, the idea that you just have to organize numbers on horizontal and vertical grids without duplication seems simple and straightforward. But each game takes on different levels of complexity when some of the blocks come already filled in and you have to learn to incorporate your number layout scheme with what is already there. It is not uncommon for a player to become totally absorbed in the mental exercise of manipulating numbers to solve the puzzle. That absorption is a classic case of allowing the joy of math to take you over for the sheer fun of it.
Another obvious form of math puzzles doesn’t seem to depend on math at all. It is a story or word puzzle that calls upon you to manipulate math concepts to solve the story mystery being presented. The classic example about two trains going the opposite direction at different speeds demonstrates how using math to solve real world problems can be fun and interesting as well. If the puzzle takes on the feel of a classic "Sherlock Holmes" mystery, that side of us that loves to uncover hidden answers will revel in using our math skills to win.
Teachers know well how using games and puzzles to make math techniques fun can be successful with students. While your classic mathematician loves to lose himself in the world of math for the sheer abstract fun of it, most of us enjoy math the most when we use it in a real world situation. For young students, play is a way to do that. Math teachers know that puzzles or story based games that take the math principles at hand and turn them into something relevant and fun is a perfect way to lower that natural "math resistance" in students and make them lovers of math.
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Like most puzzles, games that incorporate math are very healthy for your mind. Even adults who don’t have to attend math classes anymore can benefit from trying out new puzzles that put to work the math you already possess. It keeps those skills fresh and your mind fresh at the same time. That means you are sharper and ready to use the math you did learn in school in the life challenges that we all face every day.
