Trigonometry Puzzle
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A couple of years ago, I created this trigonometry puzzle to keep my students busy when we unexpectedly finished our lesson with more time to spare than I had planned.
This trigonometry puzzle is really the Twisted Wires Puzzle by Cliff Pickover in disguise.
To keep my students from googling the puzzle (as they have a tendency to do…) and to give it a mathematical spin, I added the three basic trig functions and their reciprocals to the boxes.
Students were instructed to “Connect each trig function to its reciprocal. Lines may not cross or leave the box.”
My students were immediately sucked in, and they were soon trying different methods of solving it on individual dry erase boards or on pieces of scrap paper.
I do need to apologize to the first class I used this with. I accidentally drew the boxes incorrectly (I had cotangent and cosecant connected to the edge of the rectangle instead of secant.) As a result, the puzzle was impossible. Oops! Once I fixed the diagram, it worked like a charm!
Students thought it was impossible at first, but they were so proud of themselves when they managed to find the solution.
Want more puzzles? Check out my puzzles page!
Puzzle Solutions
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!
