Fun with Matchstick Puzzles
Matchstick puzzles are puzzles in which you arrange a set of matchsticks in a pattern or shape and are required to move one or more matchsticks to form a new pattern. Matchstick puzzles originated after matches were invented by the British chemist, John Walker, in 1827. Match companies began printing puzzles on the back of their boxes, and matchstick puzzle books were published shortly thereafter.
They are a fun mental challenge for you and your kids. Here are a few puzzles to try out.
- Fun with Squares (interactive)
- Make the Fish Swim in the Opposite Direction
- Puzzling Time (interactive)
- The Bat (interactive)
- Square and Division
- More puzzles…
- Still more puzzles…
- You are a matchstick puzzle-solving maniac… here are a few more.
Move one match to change one valid mathematical equation into another.
Make Dingus the Dog look at the bone
Fun with Triangles
[...] In addition to featured sections like this one on the Human Brain and this one on the Foucault Pendulum, there’s a pretty decent Online Math Collection of problems that include categories like Melting Pot Math: Multicultural Problems for the 21st Century, Open-Ended Math Problems, Puzzling and Perplexing Seasonal Math Problems, Neighborhood Math, Mathematics Hotlist, and even Toothpick Puzzles (similar to SmartBean’s popular post on Matchstick puzzles). [...]