Gap

About Gap

Gap is a daily arithmetic game on Mind Loft, played in the browser with no app and no account. Mind Loft calls it the backwards sibling of Blitz: instead of working out the answer to a sum, you are shown the answer and must find the number that has been taken out of the line, as in ? + 6 = 20.

A day's run is twenty problems in five rounds, starting with one-step sums and the times tables and moving on to two-step lines, brackets, percentages, squares, cubes and roots. Each problem gives you four choices and twenty seconds. A correct pick scores a point and moves you on; a wrong pick or a timeout ends the run, and what you cleared is kept as your score.

The wrong choices are built from real slips people make when they run an equation in reverse: adding where they should subtract, dividing the wrong way round, or answering with the result instead of the missing number. That means you cannot guess from the size or last digit of an option, and the reliable check is to put your pick back into the line.

Everyone gets the same twenty problems in the same order, so the daily leaderboard ranks players by how far they got, with ties broken by time. New problems arrive at midnight Eastern, past days are in Mind Loft's archive, and a streak tracks the days you play. Gap is one of five games in Mind Loft's Math Gauntlet, alongside Blitz, Blitzed, Series and Back. It suits anyone who wants a short, timed arithmetic workout with a clear score.

How to play Gap

1. Open Gap on mindloftdaily.com and press Start; the clock begins only when you do.
2. Read the equation and find the box with the question mark: that is the missing number.
3. Pick the number that makes the line true from the four choices, by tapping it or pressing keys 1 to 4.
4. Answer within twenty seconds; each correct pick scores a point and brings the next line.
5. Keep going through the five rounds until you clear all twenty or a wrong answer or timeout ends the run, then compare your score on the daily leaderboard.

Screenshots

Tips

• Put your choice back into the equation before you tap it: a quick check catches most of the trap answers.
• On a line like ? × 7 = 56, divide; on ? − 9 = 15, add. Decide the reverse operation first, then calculate.
• Watch for the option that equals the right-hand side of the line: it is the result, not the missing number.
• In two-step lines, undo the last operation first and work inwards.

Questions