Did you know?
The Parshvanatha temple in Khajuraho, Madhya Pradesh, has an old magic square carved near its entrance. It uses the numbers 1 to 16, and every row, column and diagonal adds up to 34!
The modern Sudoku was most likely designed by Howard Garns, a retired American architect. It was first printed in 1979 as 'Number Place'. Its Japanese name roughly means 'the digits must be single'.
One of the earliest jigsaw puzzles was made in the 1760s by John Spilsbury, a London mapmaker. He stuck a map onto thin wood and cut it into pieces to help children learn geography.
Try this: Finish the magic square
Copy this 3 × 3 grid. Top row: 4, ?, 2. Middle row: ?, 5, ?. Bottom row: 8, ?, 6. Fill the gaps with 1, 3, 7 and 9, using each number once, so that every row, column and diagonal adds up to 15.
Show answer
top row 4, 9, 2; middle row 3, 5, 7; bottom row 8, 1, 6
Go further: Tangram: seven clever pieces
A tangram is a square puzzle cut into seven pieces: five triangles, one small square and one parallelogram (a slanting four-sided shape). It comes from China. Using all seven pieces, without overlapping, you can make cats, boats, houses and running people! Draw a tangram on thick card, cut it out with an adult, and see how many shapes you can create.