Thank you to everyone who filled out the survey! I had to look up what kind of problem Hudson Hawk was, and it was so fun to see the variety in your favorite math problems.
I also appreciate the 40 people who responded with “I got nothing.” That would be my answer too if you asked me, “What’s your favorite cake?”
Me: “I’m so excited for you to work on this problem! It’s my favorite!”
8th grader: “You said that about the problem last week.”
If I’ve ever shared a math problem with you, then that’s my favorite one. At this point, picking my favorite child would be easier. We don’t usually ask each other this question—“What’s your favorite math problem?”—even though we freely ask about favorite movies, songs, cities, TV series, sports, books, and so on.
This was a small, math-skewed sample (with nearly 90% saying they really like math!). Below are some classic problems people named as their favorites—I’ve hyperlinked them for easy exploring. The number in parentheses shows how many people mentioned each one. I tried to pick links that don’t land directly on a solution, though in some cases, it might be just a click away or farther down the page. The rest of the responses are [here].
1001 Pennies
4-Color Theorem
Bayes Theorem Medical Testing
Chicken and Pigs (2)
Chicken Nuggets (2)
Collatz Conjecture (2)
Crossing the River (corn/goose/dog/fox)
Gauss sum of numbers from 1-100
Hippocrates's Lunes
Knights of the Round Table
Konigsberg Bridge Problem
Monty Hall Problem (3)
Painted Cube (3)
Pool or Border Problem (3)
Ramsey's Party
Sheep and Wolves
Sum up the multiplication table
The Birthday Problem (2)
The Locker Problem (4)
The Spider and the Fly
Volume of a Box
Zenos Paradox
How great is this one?
When is 4 a large number? When is it small?
Responses to Question 1:
Responses to Question 3, with 1 meaning “avoid at all costs” and 5 meaning “math is my love language”:
Here is my (first) favorite problem—and it was not mentioned by anyone else!—, Strawberry Pudding:
A father asks his guest to figure out the ages of his three daughters based on two clues:
The product of their ages is 72.
The sum of their ages is the same as the house number.
The guest steps outside to look at the house number, then returns and says, “I still need another clue.”
The father replies, “The oldest daughter likes strawberry pudding.”
The guest then correctly states the ages of the three daughters.
For their portfolio, I had my students share their favorite math problem(s) and explain why. I hope we normalize that. And I sincerely hope you’ll check out a problem you’re unfamiliar with and give it a try. ❤️
My students, in good fun, used to make fun of me for saying "this task today is my favorite!" I told them it was genuine, as it was my favorite each one, each day, each time. Love that.