Skip to main content
Scientific American
Illustration of a hand and multiple numbers against a purple background.

Math Puzzles

Stretch your math muscles with these puzzles.

Graphic shows the squares and circles described above with zoomed-in insets showing ever smaller circles in the corner of the blue square.
GamesFebruary 14, 2026

Math Puzzle: The sum of all circles

Jack Murtagh
Graphic shows a cube made up of 27 smaller cubes.
GamesFebruary 7, 2026

Math Puzzle: Follow the termite

Martin Gardner
Close-up image of cake slice varieties on multicoloured plates
GamesJanuary 31, 2026

Math Puzzle: A statistical anomaly

Jack Murtagh
Graphic shows 16 matchsticks arranged to fill in every line segment of a two-by-three grid except for the horizontal segment making up the top middle part.
GamesJanuary 24, 2026

Math Puzzle: Make matchstick squares

Heinrich Hemme
Graphic shows a pizza with dashed lines indicating cuts dividing the pie into eight slices. Each of the following four slices has one piece of pepperoni: the two slices in the upper right quadrant, the bottom slice in the lower left quadrant, and the bottom slice in the upper left quadrant.
GamesJanuary 17, 2026

Math Puzzle: A Pizza Puzzle

Jack Murtagh
Graphic shows the following cards in each suit: 10, Jack, Queen, King, Ace.
GamesJanuary 10, 2026

Math Puzzle: A winning loser

Emma R. Hasson
Sushi on colorful plates with clear domes on top are evenly spaced on two conveyor belts
GamesJanuary 3, 2026

Math Puzzle: How Much Sushi Can You Eat?

Jack Murtagh
An array of about 12 road signs are in the foreground, with the open road leading toward sunset in the background.
GamesDecember 27, 2025

Math Puzzle: Count the Signs

Martin Gardner
Graphic shows a screen displaying all of the vertical and horizontal line segments that make up the digits from 0 to 9 in order.
GamesDecember 20, 2025

Math Puzzle: A Broken Clock is Right All Day

Jack Murtagh
Graphic shows nine outlined rectangles of various dimensions arranged so that each overlaps with at least two others.
GamesDecember 13, 2025

Math Puzzle: Wrangle the Rectangles

Heinrich Hemme
Cover art for Math Puzzles
GamesDecember 6, 2025

Math Puzzle: An Unknown Dimension

Jack Murtagh
Carved stairs go upward as seen from narrow walls of an opening cave
GamesNovember 29, 2025

Math Puzzle: The Ancient City

Martin Gardner
PreviousNext

Subscribe to Scientific American to learn and share the most exciting discoveries, innovations and ideas shaping our world today.

Subscription PlansGive a Gift Subscription
  • Explore SciAm
  • Latest Issue
  • News
  • Opinion
  • Newsletters
  • Podcasts
  • Games
  • Travel
  • Company
  • About
  • Press Room
  • FAQs
  • Contact Us
  • Standards & Ethics
  • International Editions
  • Advertise
  • More
  • Accessibility
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • US State Privacy Rights
  • Use of cookies/Do not sell my data
  • Return & Refund Policy

Scientific American is part of Springer Nature, which owns or has commercial relations with thousands of scientific publications (many of them can be found at www.springernature.com/us). Scientific American maintains a strict policy of editorial independence in reporting developments in science to our readers.

© 2026 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, A DIVISION OF SPRINGER NATURE AMERICA, INC.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.