Triangle Chain Puzzle

Can you place the numbers 1-9 correctly in this math logic puzzle involving a chain of triangles?

Want some more math puzzling fun involving triangles ? Check out the Triangle Sums Puzzle as well!

Instructions

Place the numbers 1 to 9 in the spaces provided so that the sum of the numbers placed on the vertices of each triangle have a sum of 13. Two of the numbers (3 and 5) have already been placed for you.

You might need to teach your students the meaning of the phrase “vertices” depending on their age/experience learning geometry.

Puzzle Source

This puzzle is from a collection of 199 different mathematical puzzles offered as a free download from IREM de Lyon. This is a top-notch puzzle resource if you speak French.

I sadly do not speak French, but I was able to use the Google Translate app to translate quite a few of the puzzle instructions in order to use them in my classroom. Other puzzles I typed up from this same resource is the U Sums Puzzle, Magic H Puzzle, Lines of 3 Puzzle, 4 x 4 Checkered Square Puzzle, Equal Sums Puzzle, Square Sums Puzzle, Product Square Puzzle, and the popular Loops Puzzle.

This specific puzzle is #132 – Chaîne de triangles.

Printing and Prepping the Puzzle

This puzzle is designed to print on letter-sized 8.5 x 11 inch paper, but you could easily scale it to print on A4 paper as well.

If you wanted to, you could skip the circular number tiles and have students write in the numbers on their own copy of the puzzle. I would recommend sliding the puzzle in a dry erase pocket if you do end up going this route!

I used this puzzle last year in my classroom as one of my Puzzles of the Week. I prepared several copies of the puzzle and hung it on my dry erase board using a Charles Leonard magnetic pocket which I picked up from Amazon. They have been a real game-changer in my classroom organization!