Top 5 Tricky Math Questions that will Stump Your Logical Ability

How can tricky math questions help you with your study?

Mathematics requires deep understanding and a strong logical and analytical bent of mind. Your logical and analytical skills will significantly improve if you practice challenging maths questions daily. Are you getting tired of your math mistakes? Mymathlab Answer is the right choice! Visit now! Do read our fun ways to teach multiplication.

Whether you are a teacher, a student, or a math enthusiast, tricky math equations can help you improve your skills and test your understanding of mathematical concepts.Make the teaching methods can be enjoyable; Learn creative math classroom ideas here in this blog. And if you think you have an excellent conceptual understanding, a tricky mathematics question may shake your confidence. Looking to improve your math skills and challenge your understanding of tricky equations? Check out our latest blog to explore common problems faced by students in learning mathematics online and take your math skills to the next level with our collection of tricky math equations. 

List of Tricky Math Questions

We have listed tricky math problems in the following section. See if you can solve the problems before checking the solution.

• 1. Three Gods Puzzle

As one of the most confusing math questions, this puzzle will hammer your brain cells and logical ability. We consider it The Hardest Logic Puzzle Ever, created by George Boolos, an American philosopher and logician. It was published in 1996 in The Harvard Review of Philosophy journal. Earlier, the Italian newspaper La Repubblica published it. 

Puzzle

Three gods have unique characteristics. One always speaks true, one speaks false, and the other speaks randomly, be it true or false. Determine which god is which. You can ask one yes-no question to each god.

Solution

Ask any god – "If I were to ask you if you were the truth-teller, would you say yes?" If yes, you can determine the god who speaks the truth. The god who speaks randomly can’t answer the question, and the god who always speaks falsely will answer no.

Later, a computer scientist, John McCarthy, added another difficulty level to this puzzle. Such as,

The gods can understand your question in English, and they will answer in their language, ‘Da’ and ‘Ja,’ for yes and no. But you need to know which means yes and which means no. So, you must find the meanings of ‘Da’ and ‘Ja.’ 

The solution to this tricky math question is to ask each god the same question. The true god will always say yes, and the false god will always answer no. This way, you can determine the nature of the gods.

When you learn to use such complex logic, study time management will become spontaneous. So you can learn math better.

• 2. Cheryl’s Birthday

This puzzle made all experienced mathematicians stumped when it was first asked in the Asian Schools Math Olympiad contest for 14 to 15 year’s students, which was organized in Singapore in 2015.

Puzzle

Cheryl just became friends with Albert and Bernard. They both want to know Cheryl’s birthday. When they asked Cheryl, she gave them a list of 10 days. 

15th May, 16th May, 19th May, 17th June, 18th June, 14th July, 16th July, 14th August, 15th August, and 17th August.

To give some hint, Cheryl told the month to Albert and the day to Bernard separately. 

Albert said that he doesn’t know Cheryl’s birthday, and he also knows that Bernard does not know her birthday too. Then Bernard replied, earlier, he did not know her birthday, but now he knows. Alber then confirms that he also knows Cheryl’s birthday. 

Now you have to determine which date from Cheryl’s list is correct.

Solution

The probability of their collision is 1/3. Because if one ant moves clockwise and the other two move counterclockwise, or vice versa, they will not collide. Also, they can never collide if the ants move in the same direction. Check out MyMathlab Answers for such exciting and tricky math questions. 

• 4. The Monty Hall Problem

An American Statistician, Steve Selvin, first posted this puzzle with the solution in a letter in 1975. Hence, this probability puzzle is named after him. It is a brain teaser influenced by the American television host Monty Hall’s game show ‘Let’s Make a Deal.’ 

Puzzle

In a game show, you have three doors in front of you, and you can select only one out of three. Behind the three doors, two have goats, and the other has a car. You choose door no 1, but the host opens another door with a goat inside it. Now he gives you another chance to change your answer. So, what will you do? Will you stick to ‘door no 1’ or switch to the other door?

Solution

It would help if you switched to the other door. Because if you change, your probability of winning the car increases to ⅔, which was ⅓ for door no 1. 

• 5. The "Two Trains" Problem

One of the most famous math trick questions is the "two trains" problem. There are several types of "two-train" problems given in school tests. Here, we have provided a general example of this type of problem.

Puzzle

Train X is traveling at 60 mph. It leaves Station A at 9:00 AM. Train Y travels at 40 mph in the opposite direction of Train X. Train Y leaves Station B at 10:00 AM. The distance between Station A and Station B is 300 miles. When do the two trains meet?"

Solution:

From the problem, we know that Train X started its journey 1 hour before Train Y. So, within that 1 hour, Train X traveled 60 miles. Since both trains travel opposite directions, we can imagine them moving toward each other. 

So, the combined speed of the two trains is 60 mph + 40 mph = 100 mph. To find out how long it will take for the trains to meet, we can use the formula distance = rate x time. 

The remaining distance from 300 miles is (300-60) = 240 miles.

So the formula will be 240 miles = 100 mph x time,

where time = 240/100 = 2.4 hours.

We calculated the distance when Train Y started its journey at 10:00 AM, and they will take 2.4 hours or 2 hours and 24 minutes to meet. 

Therefore, the two trains will meet at 12:24 PM.
For kids, a hundred chart is indispensable to learn basic math the fun way.

Could You Solve These Trick Math Questions?

These five trick math problems and their respective solutions will give you a fair idea of how you think or what logic you should apply. So, if you can’t solve it by yourself, focus on practicing hard.