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"GEOMETRICAL RIDDLES" Brain Teaser Description:
Facts: This is a great assortment of math, pattern, and geometric riddles designed by Mindtrap. There is one puzzler on each card, and there are 54 cards in a set. There are three levels of difficulty (novice, master, genius). The cards are high quality cards and the puzzles on the cards are visually well done.
Great Stocking Stuffer!: These are easy to slip into a purse or backpack for those moments when you are waiting, or traveling. Because we know it is hard for bright and gifted kids (and parents) to just...sit and wait. So much more fun to just pull out a brainteaser card!
Non-Competitive Fun: Although a two-player game is described on the back of the pack of cards, where each player takes a card and "wins" the card if they correctly solve the puzzle, our family has had lots more fun just taking turns trying to solve each puzzle in a non-competitive manner. Everyone likes to take a crack at solving the brainteaser!
Think "Out of the Box": What is nice about these cards is they get you thinking more and more "out of the box" and encouraging you to solve problems with more creative thinking. The first time we got these out, I hand-picked 10 of the easier puzzler cards from the novice set for my 9-year-old son (he loves math) and he figured out about half of them. He quickly decided that he loved these cards and every night he would bring the cards up to me so I could pick another set of brainteasers to solve. He quickly got better & better at seeing the patterns and seeing how a creative solution could be found.
Unique Learning: The puzzles are different from anything I've seen provided in schools, and are a great way to add another dimension of thinking. Each card set has a great mix of problems, and the problems also have some level of increasing complexity even within a card set.
Examples: Although many of the problems are visual and difficult to describe here, following are a few examples to give you a feel for the levels and the variety included. This is just a small sample of the great variety within the 54 problems in each set. Although there are more problems described in the Novice level, there are similar problems in the Master & Genius levels, they are just harder and more complex. This is just to give you a feel for the complexity levels of each set of cards:
Examples from the Novice Set (Ages 10+)
- Visual Puzzles: 4 examples of loops of string, and the question is which one forms a knot. AND, a harder one (I thought) where there were a number of strings in one glob and the object was to figure out how many strings there were within a time limit - some of the strings have ends and some are loops.
- Brainteasers: Seeing 10 glasses in a row, and 5 have liquid in them and asking how to alternate full and empty glasses by moving just two glasses.
- Math Patterns: Seeing a sequence of numbers and answering the question what should come next (the pattern is fairly simple, and starts out 1 1 2 3 5...)
- Geometric Patterns: A series of six squares that have different line patterns within them, and figuring out which is the odd square out.
- Roman Numerals: Math addition equation in Roman Numerals using sticks, and a single stick needs to be moved to change the equation to be something else.
- Making Geometrics: Taking 3 identical shapes, creating different shapes with them (such as hexagons, triangles)
- Math Problems: "If you divide 20 by one half and add 20 what do you get"
- Lots of "Weird & Fun": Four squares within a 4x4 grid have 2 letters in them. You need to figure out the pattern within the grid, and what would the letters be in another square that would continue the pattern. Other problems that use letters as the equations, where you need to figure out what the letters represent.
Examples in the Master Set (12+):
- Logic Problems: A 4x4 grid has numbers in 15 of the squares, and you need to figure out what would go in the 16th square.
- Geometrics: "Make two equilateral hexagons with 6 symmetical pentagons".
- Math Patterns: Seeing a sequence of numbers and answering the question what should come next (the pattern starts out 1 3 7 15 31...)
Examples in the Genius Set (14+):
- Roman Numerals: Another problem where you need to move one stick, but this Roman Numeral equation has multiplication of fractions.
- Logic Problems: A 6x6 grid of numbers is filled in, but there are 2 numbers in the wrong order and you need to decide which 2 numbers are wrong.
- Math Patterns: You are given 6 numbers, and you need to arrange the numbers in a logical sequence (this is a more complex sequence than the Novice & Master levels of sequences).
Ages 10, 12, and 14 and up.
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