Math Puzzles
What is the next number in the series? 7,645 5,764 4,576
6,457 because the last number is moved to the front to make the next number in the series.
What did one math book say to the other math book?
Do you want to hear my problems?
In an odd little town, was an odd little stream, with odd little fish in an odd little team. A stranger approached a local fisherman and asked him how much his odd little fish weighed. The odd little man replied, “All the fish in this stream weigh exactly 1/2 of a pound plus 1/2 of a fish. Isn’t that odd?” How many pounds does an odd little fish weigh?
One
Leon works at the aquarium. When he tries to put each turtle in its own tank, he has one turtle too many. But if he puts two turtles per tank, he has one tank too many. How many turtles and how many tanks does Leon have?
One
If X is an odd number, when a letter is taken away from X and it becomes even. Which is that number?
Seven (Seven-S=Even)
Tom was asked to paint the apartment number on plates for 100 apartments which means he will have to paint numbers 1 through 100. How many times will he paint the number 8?
20 times (8, 18, 28, 38, 48, 58, 68, 78, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 98)
What did the triangle say to the circle?
You’re pointless.
When Josh was 8, his brother was half his age. Now that Josh is 14, how old is his brother?
His brother is 10. Half of 8 is 4, so Josh’s brother is 4 years younger. When Josh is 14, his brother is still 4 years younger, so he’s 10.
If the zookeeper had 100 pairs of animals in her zoo and if two pairs of babies are born for each and every one of the original animals, and then sadly 23 animals don’t survive, how many animals do you have left in total?
977 animals (100×2 = 200; 200+800 = 1000; 1000-23 = 977)
You are given 3 positive numbers. You can add these numbers and multiply them together. The result you get will be the same. Which are the numbers?
1, 2, and 3
A farmer has 17 sheep and all but 9 die. How many are left?
Nine
What is the maximum possible number of times you can subtract number 5 from number 25?
Only once, is because when you subtract 5 from 25, it becomes number 20, then 15, etc.
I add five to nine and get two. The answer is correct, but how?
When it is 9 p.m., add 5 hours to it and you will get 2 p.m.
If you place three matches on a table then tell a friend to add two more matches to make eight, how can he do so?
Make a Roman numeral five out of two matches and add it to the three to make a Roman numeral eight.
I am a three-digit number. My tens digit is six more than my one’s digit. My hundreds digit is eight less than my tens digit. What number am I?
193
What weighs more, a pound of iron or a pound of feathers?
Both would weigh the same.
A 300 ft. train is traveling 300 ft. per minute and must travel through a 300 ft. long tunnel. How long will it take the train to travel through the tunnel?
Two minutes because it takes the front of the train one minute and the rest of the train will take two minutes to clear the tunnel.
I am a three-digit number. My second digit is 4 times bigger than the third digit. My first digit is 3 less than my second digit. What number am I?
141
There is a clothing store in Smithville. The owner has devised his own method of pricing items. A vest costs $20, socks cost $25, a tie costs $15 and a blouse costs $30. Using the method, how much would a pair of underwear cost?
$45 because the pricing method consists of charging $5 for each letter required to spell the item.
A man is twice as old as his little sister. He is also half as old as their dad. Over a period of 50 years, the age of the sister will become half of their dad’s age. What is the age of the man now?
He is 50 years old.
If you can purchase 8 eggs for 26 cents, how many can you buy for a cent and a quarter?
Eight
A grandmother, two mothers, and two daughters went to a baseball game together and bought one ticket each. How many tickets did they buy in total?
Three tickets because the grandmother is the mother of the two daughters who are mothers.
Tom is in charge of shipping and he can place 10 small boxes or 8 large boxes into a carton. A total of 96 boxes were sent in one shipment. The number of small boxes was less than large boxes. What is the total number of cartons he shipped?
11 cartons
If a total of 96 boxes are shipped, then the large boxes in the cartons must be a multiple of 8, which means either 16 or 56 large boxes. Since there are more large boxes in the cartons then the small ones, the number of large boxes must be 56. The number of small boxes is reduced to 96 – 56 = 40. Therefore, the total number of cartons shipped can be figured out this way:
56/8 + 40/10 = 7 + 4 = 11
When Mitch was 6 years old, his little sister, Lila, was half is age. If Mitch is 40 years old today, how old is Lila?
She is 37 years old.
If seven people meet each other and each shakes hands only once with each of the others, how many handshakes will there have been?
Twenty-one