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In a Row Puzzle

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This In a Row Puzzle challenges students to arrange the digits 1 through 9 in such a way that four statements regarding the sum of various subsets of the row are true.

in a row puzzle

The numbers 1 and 2 and all the digits between them add up to 9. The numbers 2 and 3 and all the digits between them add up to 19. The numbers 3 and 4 and all the digits between them add up to 45.

Finally, the numbers 4 and 5 and all the digits between them add up to 18.

In a Row Puzzle

Often, people ask me where I run across the puzzles I use with my students and share on my blog. Here’s the short answer: One of my hobbies is reading through as many puzzle books as I can get my hands on.

I love checking puzzle books out of the Internet Archive’s free Online Lending Library for this purpose.

In a Row Puzzle

I discovered this puzzle in Maximize Your Brainpower: 1000 New Ways to Boost Your Mental Fitness by Philip Carter and Ken Russell. I checked this book out for free from the Internet Archive’s Online Lending Library that I mentioned earlier.

I attached disc magnets to the back of the digits 1 through 9 so that students can move them around as they work to solve the puzzle.

If you had students working in groups at their tables, you wouldn’t need magnets at all. You could even give this as a task on whiteboards with no number cards at all.

Puzzle Solutions

ANsWer key link

Puzzle solutions are available on a password-protected solution page. I do not openly post the puzzle answer keys because one of my goals as a resource creator is to craft learning experiences for students that are non-google-able. I want teachers to be able to use these puzzles in their classrooms without the solutions being found easily on the Internet.

Please email me at sarah@mathequalslove.net for the password to the answer key database featuring all of my printable puzzles and math worksheets. I frequently have students emailing me for the answer key, so please specify in your email what school you teach at and what subjects you teach. If you do not provide these details, I will not be able to send you the password.

Not a teacher? Go ahead and send me an email as well. Just let me know what you are using the puzzles for. I am continually in awe of how many people are using these puzzles with scouting groups, with senior adults battling dementia, or as fun activities in their workplace. Just give me enough details so I know you are not a student looking for answers to the puzzle that was assigned as their homework!

Sarah Carter teaches high school math in her hometown of Coweta, Oklahoma. She currently teaches AP Precalculus, AP Calculus AB, and Statistics. She is passionate about sharing creative and hands-on teaching ideas with math teachers around the world through her blog, Math = Love.

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53 Comments

  1. Thank you so much for this fun puzzle! I am curious….do you also post the answers? 🙂 I love your site!

    1. You’re very welcome! I don’t post answers here on the site because I don’t want students to be able to google them. Teachers can always email me for an answer key! (mathequalslove@gmail.com)

  2. I would love an answer key to “In a Row”. I’m curious to see if I’m doing it right!

    Kelly, from British Columbia, Canada 🙂

  10. I would love the answer key for In A Row. Thank you for making math so much more fun to teach!

  14. May I have an answer key to this one and to 5 arrows puzzle. Thank you. Love all of this

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