THINKING FUN: AREA MAZES!
Let's face it, there aren't enough fun opportunities to exercise our brains on a daily basis. Sure, we have work and school where we have to think a lot, but those aren't necessarily enjoyable uses of our brain. That's why I think that puzzles and games play such an important role in keeping our brains strong, but in a fun way. And, the better the game or the puzzle, the more it engages and excites us to do it.
Area Mazes are the brainchild of prolific puzzle inventor Naoki Inaba. The premise of Area Mazes is simple, find the missing side or area of the given figure. However, the clever design of these puzzles do a great job of challenging the brain to think outside the box to solve these problems. At their core, I see these problems less as math puzzles, but more as logic puzzles as you employ your deduction and analytical skills to find the missing element. Read more about Naoki Inaba's Area Mazes in this article in the Guardian or try them below on the slide show below. After you complete a problem, click on the right arrow to advance to the next slide. The first few problems are rather simple so you can get the hang of what's going on, but then they ramp up and really challenge your noggin! If you're hungry for more Area Mazes, check out this Area Maze website or check out Inaba's Area Maze book on Amazon (highly recommended!).
The basic rules of Area Mazes:
* Find the value of the question marks in the following diagrams.
* All of the shapes are rectangles, but are not drawn to scale.
* Your working should only contain whole numbers. You may not use fractions or decimals in the course of your work. None of the answers are fractions or decimals.
Check out the Area Maze video tutorial below.
