Puzzle Lovers Rejoice: Can You Tackle These Challenging Slices?
Math enthusiasts, get ready to put your problem-solving skills to the test. Renowned math writer Ian Stewart has crafted a trio of brain-teasers that will put your logic and reasoning abilities to the limit.
The first puzzle presents a 33-cell grid with three missing corner cells. The challenge? Cover the entire grid using 11 identical tiles. Sounds simple, but beware – there's more to it than meets the eye. Stewart's solution provides no hints, leaving it up to you to figure out why this puzzle is impossible.
Next up is a geometry-based puzzle that requires you to cut an irregular shape into four identical pieces and rearrange them to form a square. Sounds like a classic brain teaser, but will your spatial reasoning skills be enough to crack the code?
Last but not least, we have a pizza-sharing puzzle that's sure to satisfy your appetite for math challenges. Divide three pizzas among five people in such a way that each person gets exactly the same size and number of pieces. Easy peasy, or is it? Stewart's book, "Reaching for the Extreme," explores extreme examples of mathematical concepts, but this particular puzzle will put your patience to the test.
Think you're up for the challenge? Check back with us at 5 pm UK time for the answers – and don't forget to pre-order Ian Stewart's new book, "Reaching for the Extreme," now available on February 12.
Math enthusiasts, get ready to put your problem-solving skills to the test. Renowned math writer Ian Stewart has crafted a trio of brain-teasers that will put your logic and reasoning abilities to the limit.
The first puzzle presents a 33-cell grid with three missing corner cells. The challenge? Cover the entire grid using 11 identical tiles. Sounds simple, but beware – there's more to it than meets the eye. Stewart's solution provides no hints, leaving it up to you to figure out why this puzzle is impossible.
Next up is a geometry-based puzzle that requires you to cut an irregular shape into four identical pieces and rearrange them to form a square. Sounds like a classic brain teaser, but will your spatial reasoning skills be enough to crack the code?
Last but not least, we have a pizza-sharing puzzle that's sure to satisfy your appetite for math challenges. Divide three pizzas among five people in such a way that each person gets exactly the same size and number of pieces. Easy peasy, or is it? Stewart's book, "Reaching for the Extreme," explores extreme examples of mathematical concepts, but this particular puzzle will put your patience to the test.
Think you're up for the challenge? Check back with us at 5 pm UK time for the answers – and don't forget to pre-order Ian Stewart's new book, "Reaching for the Extreme," now available on February 12.
can you believe there are three of them? my friend is a math whiz and she's already trying to solve them online, it's gonna be a blast to see who cracks the code first 
gotta pre-order that book too, i've been following Ian Stewart's work for ages and this one sounds like a real mind-bender 
But seriously, 11 identical tiles in a 33-cell grid? That's like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole... or something 
. And then there's the pizza-sharing puzzle - that's just cruel, man! How are you supposed to divide it evenly among five people without getting any leftover slices? 
I'm low-key obsessed with these puzzles! Who needs Netflix when you've got math problems like this? 
Give us a break! 
. The pizza-sharing puzzle is actually kinda genius - who knew that could be so complicated? 
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can't wait to get my hands on "Reaching for the Extreme" on Feb 12! 
. If you're a math enthusiast, you might want to look into it more, but I'm not convinced this puzzle is as brain-twisty as everyone's making it out to be 
. The other two puzzles look like your average geometry-based teasers, though - spatial reasoning will likely come in handy there 
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