Try these 50 math questions, puzzles and jokes with a friend, your class or your family. Some ask for a calculation; others are clearly labelled wordplay. Think first, then reveal the explanation.
The original 2025 collection has been recovered. This version corrects ambiguous questions and separates mathematical answers from jokes. It is a warm-up activity, not a test of mastery.
How to use the quiz
- Choose five questions at a time.
- Explain how you reached each mathematical answer.
- For a joke, identify the wordplay rather than memorizing it as a fact.
Start here: questions 1–15
1. If you have 4 pizzas and eat 3.9999 of them, how many do you have left?
Show answer and explanation
0.0001 pizzas (and maybe a nap)
2. What’s heavier: 1,000 pounds of bricks or 1,000 pounds of feathers?
Show answer and explanation
Neither! They weigh the same.
3. How many seconds are in a minute?
Show answer and explanation
60 – unless you're doing burpees, then it feels like 300.
4. A donut costs $1. You buy 10. How much do you spend?
Show answer and explanation
$10. Multiply 10 donuts by $1 per donut; price does not tell us anything about a person’s weight.
5. What’s 10 + 10?
Show answer and explanation
20. Or as your phone might say, 10/10.
6. Math joke: What’s a math teacher’s favorite place in New York?
Show answer and explanation
Times Square.
7. You multiply me by any number, and I’m still me. Who am I?
Show answer and explanation
Zero.
8. Math joke: If a train leaves at 6:00 and goes 60 mph, when will the driver eat lunch?
Show answer and explanation
At lunchtime.
9. Math joke: What do you get when you mix geometry and fast food?
Show answer and explanation
A line for fries.
10. What’s 50% of 14?
Show answer and explanation
7
11. Which kind of angle measures exactly 90 degrees?
Show answer and explanation
A right angle.
12. Which digit can look the same after a half-turn in a symmetric font?
Show answer and explanation
8. The appearance depends on the font; 0 can also have this property.
13. Math joke: What do you call friends who love math?
Show answer and explanation
Alge-bros.
14. If a vampire buys 3 dozen donuts, how many does he have?
Show answer and explanation
36. Until someone checks the nutrition label.
15. What comes after 3, 6, 9...?
Show answer and explanation
12. Unless you’re clapping to a beat.
Keep thinking: questions 16–35
16. A farmer has 17 sheep. All but 9 run away. How many does he have left?
Show answer and explanation
9
17. Math joke: What’s a math teacher’s favorite tree?
Show answer and explanation
Geometry
18. Divide 30 by ½, then add 10. What do you get?
Show answer and explanation
70
19. You have 5 chocolate bars and give away half. How many bars remain?
Show answer and explanation
2½ bars. Half of 5 is 2.5.
20. Wordplay: How do you make “seven” even?
Show answer and explanation
Remove the letter S. This changes a word; the number 7 remains odd.
21. What comes next: 1, 11, 21, 1211, 111221...?
Show answer and explanation
312211 (Look-and-say pattern)
22. A pizza has 8 equal slices. You eat 7. What fraction remains?
Show answer and explanation
1/8 of the pizza.
23. How many months have 28 days?
Show answer and explanation
All 12 of them.
24. What’s ⅓ of ⅓ of ⅓ of 27?
Show answer and explanation
1
25. Math joke: Why was the equal sign so humble?
Show answer and explanation
It didn’t think it was less than or greater than anyone.
26. Which operation undoes multiplication by a nonzero number?
Show answer and explanation
Division by that same number. Division by zero is not defined.
27. Math joke: What do you call a number that can’t sit still?
Show answer and explanation
A roamin’ numeral.
28. What is the smallest positive integer divisible by every integer from 1 through 10?
Show answer and explanation
2,520. The least common multiple is 2³ × 3² × 5 × 7.
29. Math joke: What did zero say to eight?
Show answer and explanation
Nice belt!
30. How many sides does a triangle have?
Show answer and explanation
3 sides.
31. How many faces does a cube have?
Show answer and explanation
6 square faces.
32. How many straight sides does a circle have?
Show answer and explanation
None. “Inside and outside” is a joke, not the geometric meaning of a side.
33. You have 10 pencils. You give away 4. What do you have now?
Show answer and explanation
6 pencils—and fewer excuses.
34. Math joke: What’s a cat’s favorite math subject?
Show answer and explanation
Meow-gebra.
35. Math joke: Why didn’t the quarter roll down the hill with the nickel?
Show answer and explanation
It had more cents.
A little more challenge: questions 36–50
36. What symbol denotes the principal square root of −1?
Show answer and explanation
i, the imaginary unit. Both i and −i solve x² = −1.
37. Math joke: Why can’t you trust an atom?
Show answer and explanation
They make up everything—even your math scores.
38. Does infinity minus infinity have one fixed numerical answer?
Show answer and explanation
No. Infinity is not an ordinary real number. In a limit, ∞ − ∞ is an indeterminate form; the underlying expressions determine the result.
39. What is the sum of the interior angles of a simple octagon?
Show answer and explanation
1,080°. Use (n − 2) × 180° with n = 8.
40. Triangle with angles 90° and 45°. Third angle?
Show answer and explanation
45°
41. What is π to two decimal places?
Show answer and explanation
3.14. This is an approximation; π is irrational and its decimal expansion does not terminate or repeat.
42. Can a triangle in a flat plane have two right angles?
Show answer and explanation
No. Its three interior angles total 180°, so two right angles leave no positive third angle.
43. If 5x = 20, what’s x?
Show answer and explanation
4
44. A train leaves a station at 5 PM at 60 mph. A second train leaves the same station on the same route at 6 PM at 90 mph. At constant speeds, when does the second catch the first?
Show answer and explanation
8 PM. At 6 PM the first train is 60 miles ahead. The closing speed is 90 − 60 = 30 mph, so catching up takes 60 ÷ 30 = 2 hours.
45. What’s 13 × 7?
Show answer and explanation
91
46. Give a positive integer greater than 1 that is both a perfect square and a perfect cube.
Show answer and explanation
64: it equals 8² and 4³. There are other answers, including 729.
47. What’s 0! (zero factorial)?
Show answer and explanation
1
48. What’s 111,111,111 × 111,111,111?
Show answer and explanation
12,345,678,987,654,321
49. In the short-scale number names used in the United States, what comes after trillion?
Show answer and explanation
Quadrillion (10¹⁵), then quintillion (10¹⁸).
50. Math joke: Why is math like a relationship?
Show answer and explanation
One mistake, and it gets complicated.
Keep learning
Use a missed question to choose your next practice topic. Fractions, factors, geometry and number patterns become easier when you explain one step at a time. Explore math support or tell us which ideas feel difficult.
Recovered original PDF
Revised study edition
Download the corrected study guide (PDF). The revised edition reflects the corrections on this page. Independent teacher review is pending.
Download the original archived handout (PDF). This preserves the original download for existing links. It predates the corrections above and is not the current official exam reference. Use the revised explanation on this page; the revised edition is linked above.