This is a back-issue of this site’s newsletter
Have you heard of cryptarithm puzzles? They’re a great pre-algebra puzzle, and some can be quite mind-bending. They’re also called called Crypt-Arithmetic puzzles, Letter Arithmetic puzzles or other names. A cryptarithm is a mathematical sum where each digit has been replaced with a letter. The puzzle is to restore the original sum.
CryptarithmsA couple of years ago, I wrote a computer program to find some cryptarithm puzzles. To my shock, the software poured out millions of them! I picked out a few and put them on a Cryptarithms page on Dr Mike’s Math Games for Kids.
As for the other 4 million puzzles, I put them onto a CD. At Cryptarithmania.com you can read a little about this effort, and sign up to receive more specially selected Cryptarithm puzzles by email.
If you do sign up for these emails, you’ll see they suggest from time to time you buy the CD. Well, there’s good news and bad news about that. The bad news is, the CD is no longer available for sale. The good news is, I’ve put the entire contents of the CD online – all 4 million puzzles! Click over there now!
If you solve one puzzle from the site every hour, 12 hours a day, you’ll have exhausted the puzzles on the site in 913 years. So, drop by, browse around, and start pickiong out puzzles to solve. When you’ve finished them all, in 2925, drop me a line and I’ll cook up another 4 million puzzles to keep you going!