A puzzle is a game, problem, or toy that tests a person’s ability to think cleverly or the person’s imagination and knowledge. The solver has to arrange pieces together in a logical way, in order to arrive at the correct or fun solution of the puzzle. There are different types of puzzles, such as crossword puzzles, word-search puzzles, number puzzles, relational puzzles, or logic puzzles.
Puzzles are basically created to be a form of entertainment but they can also arise from serious mathematical or logistical problems. In such cases, their solutions may be a significant contribution to mathematical research. Solutions of puzzles generally require the recognition of patterns and the commitment to a particular kind of ordering.
People with a high level of inductive reasoning aptitude are considered to be good at solving such puzzles compared to others, but puzzles based upon inquiry and discovery may be solved more easily by people with good deduction skills. Deductive reasoning improves with practice. Mathematical puzzles often involve BODMAS, which explains the order of operation to be done while solving a mathematical expression.
In brief, crossword puzzles consist of a grid of squares and blanks into which words need to cross vertically and horizontally, which are written according to clues. A word game that consists of the letters of words placed in a grid, which is often a square or rectangular shape is called word search puzzle. The main objective of this puzzle is to find and mark all the words hidden inside the box. The words may be placed vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. Number puzzles involve different tasks such as finding missing numbers, arranging numbers with various patterns and so on.
Relational or logical puzzles require deducting reasoning skills as mentioned above. These puzzles may contain letter or word patterns, blood relations, simple mathematical operations, etc., Adding to the above genres of puzzles, we have another type called visual math puzzle. This type of puzzle contains roman numerals, for which the solver has to perform mathematical operations or to generate numerical values. The surprising benefits of solving puzzles are, improvement of memory, problem solving skills and visual-spatial reasoning (to keep attention on a particular task), etc.,
