Math whizzes, do you think you're up to the challenge? Today's puzzles are all geometric and come courtesy of none other than Ian Stewart, the UK's most renowned and eloquent popular maths writer. With 11 tiles and a grid of 33 cells, can you cover the entire grid? If not, why?
The answer lies in cutting the left-hand shape into four identical pieces along the black lines, and reassembling them to form a square - but is there another way to do it?
Meanwhile, three pizzas are being divided among five people. Will three slices be enough for everyone, or will each person have three equal-sized slices? The answer lies in cutting each pizza into five equal parts.
Ian Stewart's latest book, Reaching for the Extreme, promises to be a fascinating read, filled with stories of quests for the biggest, fewest, shortest, fastest, tightest, weirdest and greatest examples of various mathematical concepts. Can you solve today's puzzles? Ian will be back at 5 pm UK with the answers - but no spoilers, please!
The answer lies in cutting the left-hand shape into four identical pieces along the black lines, and reassembling them to form a square - but is there another way to do it?
Meanwhile, three pizzas are being divided among five people. Will three slices be enough for everyone, or will each person have three equal-sized slices? The answer lies in cutting each pizza into five equal parts.
Ian Stewart's latest book, Reaching for the Extreme, promises to be a fascinating read, filled with stories of quests for the biggest, fewest, shortest, fastest, tightest, weirdest and greatest examples of various mathematical concepts. Can you solve today's puzzles? Ian will be back at 5 pm UK with the answers - but no spoilers, please!
I think these geometric puzzles are an interesting way to challenge our spatial reasoning and critical thinking skills. The idea of cutting the left-hand shape into four identical pieces to reassemble a square is quite ingenious. However, the question remains whether there's another way to achieve this result - a puzzle worthy of a mathematician's scrutiny! 
i love math puzzles and i've never seen anything like this before... 33 cells and 11 tiles sounds kinda hard to me lol 
idk how they expect us to solve it but i'll give it a shot anyway! i also wanna read that book by Ian Stewart, his writing is so interesting 
and i love the idea of reading about all these extreme math concepts... do u guys think we'll be able to solve the pizza problem too? like, how hard can it be to divide 3 pizzas into 5 parts? 
️ they might seem easy to crack at first but it takes time and patience to figure them out 
my personal fave is when you cut those 11 tiles into four identical pieces - genius! 
I mean, I love Ian Stewart's writing as much as the next math geek, but solving these puzzles sounds way more fun in theory than in practice... 
. I think it's great that Ian Stewart is sharing his expertise with us - I've read his books before and he explains things in such a clear and easy-to-understand way. anyway, I'm excited to see if my 9yo can figure out how to cut those tiles into shapes 
. gotta admit, three slices of pizza for five people sounds like a bit of a stretch though - my kids would definitely need more than that to satisfy their hunger 
this one looks super challenging but i think it can be done 
i'm curious to see if there's another way to do it tho 
This one from Ian Stewart is pretty cool, and I'm all about that geometric vibe 
. Cutting the left-hand shape into four identical pieces sounds super clever, but I'm also down to try and figure out another way to do it 
Can't wait for Ian to share the answers at 5 pm UK! 
#MathPuzzleLove #GeometricGuru #PizzaPartySolved
. Like, why can't we just cut the pizza into five equal-sized slices like that? Sounds simple enough, but I guess it's not as easy as it looks 
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. But hey, that's what makes them fun, right? The thrill of the challenge and seeing if we can figure out the solution on our own 
. One way to do it seems legit, but can someone else figure out a different method? 
!
. Can we just have a simple solution or two instead of teasing us with an impossible one? And btw, three slices of pizza per person? How's that gonna work out in practice? Don't get me wrong, I love maths as much as the next person, but can we keep it real for once?
btw i've been reading this book "Reaching for the Extreme" and it's soooo good 
at least its good exercise 4 ur brain 
and who knows, maybe u'll even enjoy it 
But, gotta say, Ian Stewart's puzzle is kinda tricky... I mean, cutting the left-hand shape into four identical pieces along the black lines and reassembling them to form a square is genius, but that doesn't necessarily mean there isn't another way to do it. 
cutting pizzas into five equal parts is a bit more straightforward though i wonder how many slices each person would actually get if you cut the pizzas unevenly 
I mean, come on, can't we have a puzzle where we just have to use our brains for once and not follow some arbitrary number pattern? It's all about the novelty and challenge, right?