Home Teacher Corner Family Corner Challenge Index Math Index About Figure This! En Espanol Contact Us!

Figure This!
Download and Print the Challenges

1.

Line Up!

 

How long do you have to stand in line?

2.

Beating Heart

 

How fast does your heart beat?

3.

Popcorn

 

Which shape holds the most popcorn?

4.

Don't Fall In

 

Why aren't manhole covers square?

5.

Upside Down?

 

What letters can be read the same upside down as right-side up?

6.

Which Way?

 

How many different ways are there to get to your destination?

7.

Double Or Not

 

Which sequence grows the fastest?

8.

Stamps

 

Can you combine the stamps to make $1.77?

9.

Mirror, Mirror

 

Does backing up show more of me?

10.

What's My Angle?

 

Do bigger hands have larger angles?

11.

Play Ball!

 

What is round, hard, and sold for $3 million?

12.

Chocolate!

 

Which chocolate-covered cookie would you eat?

13.

Thirteen! Oh No!

 

How many Fridays are Friday the thirteenths?

14.

Battling Averages

 

Who comes out on top after a day at the ballpark?

15.

Big Trees

 

Are there trees big enough to drive a car through?

16.

Beanie Babies®

 

Can you make money selling Beanie Babies®?

17.

Perplexing Percentages

 

So how much does it cost?

18.

Tern Turn

 

How fast can an Arctic tern fly around the world?

19.

Two Points

 

Who won the basketball game?

20.

Basketball Picks

 

A logical question. Can you puzzle it out?

21.

Body Mass

 

Is Helix's health at risk?

22.

Combination Locks

 

What if you forgot your combination?

23.

Fractals

 

What image comes next in this sequence?

24.

Gasoline Tanks

 

How far can you go on one tank of gas?

25.

Grape Juice Jungle

 

Which brand of concentrate tastes "most grape?"

26.

I Win!

 

Is this dice game a fair one?

27.

Life Expectancy

 

Do women live longer than men?

28.

Pigeonholes

 

How many people would have to be in a school in order for at least two of them to have the same first and last initials?

29.

Salaries

 

Will women ever earn as much money as men?

30.

Smiles

 

How much is a smile worth? A logical problem...

31.

Tournaments

 

How many more games need to be played in the modern NCAA during March Madness?

32.

Windshield Wipers

 

It's raining! Which wiper design clears the greater area of the windshield?

33.

Access Ramps

 

How steep can a ramp be? How far away should the ramp start to go up three steps?

34.

Faster?

 

Florence Griffith-Joyner was timed at 0.91 seconds for 10 meters in the Olympics...could she outrun a car?

35.

Fire Hydrant

 

What shape is at the very top of a fire hydrant?

36.

Majority Vote

 

What percentage does it take to win the vote?

37.

Map Coloring

 

How many colors are needed on a map of the the US?

38.

Monday's Child

 

On what day were you born?

39.

Patios

 

Does bigger perimeter mean bigger area?

40.

Putt-Putt

 

Can you make a hole-in-one on this course?

41.

Radar Bills

 

Do you have a radar bill in your pocket?

42.

Rose Bowl

 

Can a football team score 11 points in a game?

43.

Seeing Stars

 

Can you draw a picture of the stars on an American flag?

44.

Table for 19

 

How much room do you need at a table?

45.

Three Squares

 

How can two squares make a third?

46.

Time Zones

 

How many time zones between San Francisco and Cairo Egypt?

47.

VCR

 

Do you always get 6 hours on a six-hour tape?

48.

Working Hours

 

How much time do teens spend on the job?

49.

Angolan Sand Pictures

 

What does the intermediate design look like?

50.

Animal Ages

 

Do dogs age faster than humans?

51.

Bar Codes

 

Can you "crack" the bar code?

52.

Capture-Recapture

 

How many fish are in the pond, and how do you know?

53.

Census

 

How many people live in the United States?

54.

Cut the Cake

 

What's a fair share of the cake?

55.

Decorating Boxes

 

How do you print a ribbon on a box?

56.

Drip Drops

 

How much water do you waste?

57.

Envelopes

 

How can you fold a sheet of paper into an envelope?

58.

Gone Fishing

 

My, my, little fish; how you've grown.

59.

Japanese Floors

 

How do I cover thee? Let me count the ways.

60.

Number Tricks

 

Bet I can guess your color

61.

Statue of Liberty

 

Is the Statue of Liberty's nose too long?

62.

Keeping Cool

 

When should you buy block ice or crushed ice?

63.

Matching Birthdays

 

Same birth month? No Way!

64.

Wheel of Fortune

 

Who would you guess?

65.

Tan-Don't Burn

 

How long before you burn?

66.

Airport Runways

 

Why are airport runways numbered?

67.

When in Rome

 

Does Polygon need a jacket today?

68.

Bones

 

Does drinking soda affect your health?

69.

Misaddressed

 

How could I send the check and not pay the bill?

70.

Soda

 

Does it make a difference where you shop?

71.

Archeology

 

Site A! Site B! How alike are we?

72.

TV Ratings

 

When DO most people watch television?

73.

A Shard or Two

 

How big was the plate?

74.

The Race

 

Who runs faster

75.

Glide Ratio

 

How far can you fly a paper airplane

76.

Visualizing

 

Is seeing believing?

77.

Movie Money

 

Do movies make money?

78.

Bowl 'Em Over

 

Does he have a chance?

79.

Morphing

 

Can you turn a frown into a smile

80.

Gifts Galore

 

Is there room for all these gifts?

 

Home · Take a Challenge · Challenge Index · Math Index · Contact Us · About
Technical Requirements · Printing the Challenges · Family Corner · Teacher Corner
PowerPoint Presentation · Video Presentation · En Español · Purchase the CD
©2004 National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
Web site and CD-ROM design/production
© 1999-2004 KnowNet Construction, Inc.