Math Gauntlet

About Math Gauntlet

Math Gauntlet comes from Mind Loft, a free daily puzzle site at mindloftdaily.com. Instead of a puzzle of its own, it takes the day's problems from five of Mind Loft's daily math games and runs them in one sitting: Blitz (quick arithmetic), Gap (the missing number), Series (what comes next), Back (which line makes the number) and Blitzed (three numbers a line). Each game has twenty problems, so a perfect run is 100 answers.

Every question shows four choices, answered with a click or with the keys 1 to 4. Blitz gives you fifteen seconds a problem and the other four give twenty. You have one life in each game: a miss ends that game's bar in red and the run moves straight on to the next game, so one slip early does not end the whole day. At the end you get a single scorecard, with a bar for each game drawn on the same scale.

The run is the same for everyone that day, and a Rankings page shows how your score compares with the other players. The opening Blitz problems are a warm-up of simple sums, and the later games ask you to spot sequences and build a target from several numbers.

It suits players who already like one of Mind Loft's math dailies and want them all in one go, or anyone after a longer mental arithmetic workout than a single short puzzle. There is no calculator and no account to make.

How to play Math Gauntlet

1. Open mindloftdaily.com/math and press Take your run.
2. Read the problem and pick one of the four answers, by clicking it or pressing the keys 1 to 4, before the timer runs out: fifteen seconds in Blitz, twenty in the other games.
3. Keep answering: each game has twenty problems, and one wrong answer or a timeout ends that game.
4. The next game starts on its own, in order Blitz, Gap, Series, Back and Blitzed.
5. After the fifth game, read your scorecard and check Rankings to see how you did against the day's other players.

Screenshots

Tips

• Use the number keys rather than the mouse: a second saved on every Blitz sum adds up over twenty problems.
• A miss only costs the game you are in, so in the later games take the time you have rather than rushing.
• In Series, check the differences between terms first, then whether they double or alternate.
• Rule out answers that end in the wrong digit before you work out the whole sum.

Questions