If you search for "Log Puzzle" in Google the first few hits are for a very clever packing puzzle with physical logs that I (of course) have a copy of in my too big puzzle collection. Anyhow, I've wanted to make a new math puzzle worksheet using basic logarithms for a while now and today was finally the day. (And yeah it took forever.) The initial idea was to make my own version of one of those maze worksheets but somehow I ended up with a design that is kind of a cross between dominoes and the iOS puzzle game Flow.

I decided to make the puzzle bigger so next I drafted a larger version and planned out all the routes. (I am not going to share a picture of this since it would give away the solution to the puzzle.) Next, I created lots of basic equations with similar answers, trying to have many logs that would have positive, negative, and fractional answers. Finally, I created the whole thing in Illustrator and populated the puzzle with equations using Math Type. For some reason the parenthesis would not export out of Math Type into Illustrator so I had to screen shot these which is why some of the equations might look a little different. As I filled in the equations I tried to make the puzzle tricky by adding false routes, and grouping similar answers near each other. In case the puzzle is too tricky I made two versions of it, one where the ends of the snakes are revealed and one where they are not. You can download the puzzles below and give them a shot. Let me know on Twitter or Pinterest if you like them! As always I haven't posted the solution anywhere to keep them off Google for as long as possible.

CLICK THROUGH FOR A PDF VERSION OF THE PUZZLE, IT'S EVEN EDITABLE IN ILLUSTRATOR IF YOU HAVE IT.

If you search for "Trig Puzzle" in Google one of the first links is to this blog! Pretty neat since I don't update this enough, certainly not enough for my friend Rory. Anyhow, just before Christmas my PLC searched "Radical Puzzle" in Google a few times looking for a Tarsia style puzzle but couldn't find exactly what we wanted. Which was a Tarsia style puzzle that included simplifying radicals as well as basic radical operations (without variables). So we whipped one up that you can download as a PDF. Just click through the picture below.

Click through to download this as a PDF file.

The puzzle is a little tricky since there are problems on all 4 sides of the boxes, but the solution will read as expected. If you find the solution phrase too obnoxious you can always edit it in Acrobat. I haven't posted the solution anywhere to keep it off Google, although I know none of our students would ever search for such a thing.

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