21 Tricky Math Brain Teasers for Kids
- Author: Noreen Niazi
- Last Updated on: December 19, 2023
Do you love asking riddles? Which type of brain teasers do you like? If you are searching for tricky math brain teasers, this post is for you. Deep dive into the blog post and check your math skills with different math riddles.
Keep your kids’ minds sharp with these 21 tricky math brain teasers! Perfect for kids who love a challenge and want to improve their math skills.
Math brain Teasers or math puzzles:
Math brain teasers are the best way to develop mathematical skills and critical thinking among students. When you ask a puzzle everyone, everyone finds their solution by connecting the logic in the questions.
Why are math brain teasers essential for kids?
Math brain teasers help the students to focus on the particle problem and enhance their logical reasoning skills and critical thinking. Brain teasers are vital for students because they enhance the following attributes of students.
- It improves students’ critical thinking, logical reasoning, and problem-solving skills.
- Help teachers to create the interest of students in math class.
- Motivate students to try challenging math problems.
Easy math brain teaser for kids:
Do you want to engage your students in different activities? Whether you are a teacher or parent, it’s always challenging to create interest in kids in mathematics; engage your student with these brain teasers and develop their interest in mathematics class.
Let’s begin with easy math brain teasers to check your expertise in mathematics.
1
Here are five times as many books on the long shelf as on the short frame. There are ten books on the long ledge. How many books are on the short shelf?
Solution:
Books on the short shelf =x
There are ten books on the long shelf=5x
Total long shelf 5x=10
x=10/5 =2
2
There are 36 sweet potatoes in the purple basket and four in the yellow basket. How often are as many sweet potatoes in the purple basket as in the yellow basket?
Solution:
$$x=\frac{36}{4}=9$$
There are often nine times more sweet potatoes in purple than yellow baskets.
3
Jack painted 24 portraits for galleries. If there were eight galleries and he painted the same number of portraits for each gallery, how many portraits did he paint for each gallery?
Solution:
$$x=\frac{24}{3}=8$$
There are three portraits or each gallery.
4
Each basket in the grocery store has three sweet potatoes. If there are 30 sweet potatoes, how many baskets are there?
Solution:
$$x=\frac{30}{3}=10$$
There are ten baskets.
5
If students in the marching bands are standing in the 4th rows with seven students in each row, how many are all together?
Solution:
$$x=7\times 4=28$$
There are 28 students together in the marching band.
6
The eight tables in the cafeteria have 40 fifth graders altogether. If there is an equal number of fifth graders on each table, how many are on each table?
Solution:
$$x=\frac{40}{8}=5$$
There are 5th graders on each table.
7
At the home improvement store, there are six boxes of nails in each row, and there are four rows. How many boxes of nails are there altogether?
Solution:
$$x=6\times 4=24$$
There are 24 boxes of nails together.
8
If t-shirts on the table at the clothing store are folded neatly in 4 rows with nine t-shirts in each row, how many t-shirts are there together?
Solution:
$$x=4\times 9=36$$
There is a total of 36 T-shirts.
9
There were some geese on the lake. Four of them flew away. Now there are three geese on the lake. How many geese were on the lake to start?
Solution:
$$x=4+3=7$$
There are seven geese on the lake.
.
10
Luke has ten pencils, and Henry has eight pencils. How many fewer pencils does Henry have than Luke?
Solution:
$$x=10-8=2$$
Henry has two few pencils than Luke.
11
There were three caterpillars in the garden. Some more crawled in. Now there are seven caterpillars in the park. How many caterpillars crawled in?
Solution:
$$x=7-3=4$$
So, there are four caterpillars crawled in.
12
The number X is odd. X becomes even when you remove an alphabet. What number exactly is that?
Answer:
X=Seven
Removing S get Even.
13
If 8 = 2, 666 = 3, 9=1, and 9090 = 4, what is 618902 equal to?
Answer:
As there are two circles in the 8. Similarly, 666 has three circles, and 9090 has four circles. As 618902 has five circles.
14
I am a three-digit number. I have a second digit that is four times larger than my third. Three less than my second digit is my first digit. What am I?
Solution:
Third decimal digit number =x
2nd digit =4x
First digit =4x-3
If we get x=1,
Then 2nd digit =4, and the first digit is 4-3=1
So, a three-digit number, in this case, is 141.
15
How many times can you subtract four from 16?
Answer:
We can subtract in the following patterns.
16-4=12-4=8-4=4-4=0
So, we can subtract 4 times four from 16.
16
A grandfather, two fathers, and two sons went to train to travel together. They buy one ticket each. How many tickets did they buy in total?
Answer:
3 Tickets.
Grandfather =1- father and 1- son
=1- father and 1- son.
Finally, from above, 2- fathers and 2- sons.
17
Tom was asked to paint numbers 1 through 100 on each of the 100 apartments where the number plates are located. Count how many times he will need to paint the number 8 to see how many times there are.
Solution
Tom Paint 20 times the digit 8.
Number 8 between 1-100 is involved are 8 18 28 38 48 58 68 78 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 98.
18
Can you tell me what a triangle says to a circle?
Answer:
You are useless.
19
Leon works at the aquarium. He has too many turtles when he attempts to place each one in its tank. However, he has too many turtles in one tank if he puts two turtles in each. How many tanks and turtles does Leon have?
Answer
4 turtles and 3 tanks.
20
How can two be taken away from five and four left?
Answer:
FIVE=Remove F and E=IV Roman letter for 4.
21
What is the number if the sum of three consecutive odd numbers is 81?
Consecutive odd number:
$$1st =x,$$
$$2nd =x+2$$
$$3rd= x+4$$
$$(x)+(x+2)+(x+4)$$
$$=3x+6=81$$
$$3x=81-6$$
$$x=\frac{75}{3}=25$$
How to solve the Math puzzles:
Do you want the way to solve the puzzle or trending math problems? Explore the following blogs on the issues.
- Top 10 virals math problems in 2023
- 19 math problem-solving strategies for elementary students
Conclusion: Why Conversion Charts for Math is a Must-Have
Math brain teasers and games are the best way to motivate students to learn different problem-solving techniques. If you try these 30 tricky math brain teasers and successfully solve them, you can be a good problem solver.
If you want to get more tricky math brain teasers, find interesting books to explore the different levels of mathematical puzzles.
FAQs
There are a lot of well-known maths puzzles. However, these are a few that I came upon online:
Crazy 8s: To obtain 1,000, add eight 8s together using simple addition. 888 + 88 + 8 + 8 + 8 equals 1,000.
Farming: When asked what kinds of animals he keeps on his property, the farmer replies, “I only ever keep sheep, goats, and horses. They are all sheep, except for three, all goats, except for four, and all horses, except for five, at the moment. How many of each animal does he own? The farmer has one horse, two goats, and three sheep.
Here are a few more maths puzzles I discovered on the internet:
Four apples: How many remain after removing three of the original four? (Reply: You have three because you took three apples!)
moms, daughters, and grandmothers: Together, a grandmother, two mothers, two daughters, and one ticket were purchased for the baseball game. In total, how many tickets did they purchase? Three tickets, please. In addition to being a mother, the grandmother is also a mother. 1
Eggs: A dozen eggs cost 12 cents. The number of eggs you can get for a dollar? (Response: 100 eggs. 4 more eggs are provided for free when you purchase 8 dozen eggs for 96 cents.) 1
Eight four: How do you multiply eight fours together so that the result is 500? (Solution: 500 = 444 + 44 + 4 + 4 + 4)
The solution is multiplying 9 by 8 to get 72 by adding a “x” between those numbers. Then make it 720 by adding a zero at the end.
.According to one source1, the oldest known riddle is 3800 years old and comes from ancient Mesopotamia. It goes like this:
He who is captured will say nothing. Who is it?
The answer is a fish.