Art Puzzles by Number: From Easy to Mind Bending

by Kathy Weaver

Overview

Utah State Textbook Commission has placed this book on its list as "Recommended Student Resource" for Mathematics / Pre-Algebra grade levels 7-12 for its emphasis on indirect reasoning skills. Test your logic and problem solving skills in geometric puzzles that create a work of art. Art Puzzles by Numbers is the most electrifying new kind of puzzle to come along in many years. These beguiling puzzles already have millions of devoted fans in Japan, where they were invented years ago. And now Art Puzzles by Numbers has been introduced to the United States where its popularity is growing enormously. The concept is cleverly simple. You start with an empty grid. The numbers to the side and above tell you "how many" squares to fill in the columns and rows. The trick is that the numbers don't tell you "which" squares to fill in-that's for you to decide through logical reasoning and by operating back and forth between the columns and the rows. Unlike the crossword puzzle, when you have finished one of these "picture logic" puzzles correctly, you've made a picture! Complete instructions are included along with 85 puzzles ranging from easy to hard. You will find puzzles of animals, sports, holidays and many, many other things that will peak the curiosity in kids, adults and seniors.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781888106572
Publisher:	Agreka Books
Publication date:	02/16/2010
Pages:	128
Sales rank:	953,358
Product dimensions:	8.01(w) x 8.03(h) x 0.38(d)

Read an Excerpt

All you need to solve an ART PUZZLES BY NUMBER grid is a pencil and some logical thinking. The basic method is simple: Following the charted numbers along the top and side of the grid, you complete the picture by determining which squares to fill and which not to fill. That’s where the thinking comes in: You proceed from what you do know, step by step, to learn what you don’t know, with all the excitement that the process of discovery always brings. By the time you’ve read through these instructions, you’ll have the tools to take on every grid in this book. It’s possible to skip most of the information and discover the method as you go, but working your way through the Sample Puzzle by following these detailed instructions should save you quite a bit of trial-and-error time.

Solving a Sample Puzzle

The numbers on the left of each row and at the top of each column tell you “how many” squares to fill in for that particular row or column. Once you know “how many” squares are to be filled in, your challenge is to reason “which ones.”

SAMPLE 1

The simplest example is in single-digit rows and columns. (Rows in the grid are designated by capital letters, Columns by lowercase letters, as shown in the sample puzzle.) In row D, which contains 15 blank squares, there is only one number, “12"— indicating that by the time this 10 x 15 square puzzle is complete, row D will have a solid block of 12 consecutive squares filled in and 3 squares empty. But which 12?

If you start at the left and count 12 squares (as in example 1), you leave 3 empty squares to the right, but if you start at the right (as in example 2), you leave the empty squares on the left. Okay, now you will notice that whether you start right or left, the 9 squares in the middle will be filled in (showing in example 3). There’s no way to avoid it. When there’s a single number in a row and that number is greater than half the number of squares in the line, you can always fill in one or more center squares.

EXAMPLE 1

Now you can fill in those “overlap” 9 squares of the sample puzzle, then find the other rows or columns where this principle applies and fill in the appropriate center squares (confirm your moves in the next paragraph). You may find it helpful to mark an X for the squares you KNOW will be empty. Okay, now you’ve filled in the middle 13 squares of row E and the middle squares of column j. But what about rows or columns with more than one digit? In row F, “2 7 2" tells you that there will be three groups that will contain, in order, 2, 7 and 2 consecutive black squares. The fact that the numbers are separated tells you that there is at least 1 empty square between each set of black squares . . .

Table of Contents

Introduction

TIPS AND INSTRUCTION

SAMPLE PUZZLE

Part 1. WARMING UP. . . .

Part 2. THINK YOU'RE READY?. . . .

Part 3. OKAY—GO FOR IT. . . .

Part 4. THE BIG TIME. . . .

ANSWER PAGES

AND FINALLY, CREATE YOUR OWN