Daily Puzzles

Similar to everyone else in the world, our lives have been drastically changed from the recent events that have occurred in the past few weeks revolving around the pandemic. We have been forced to change our ways of life, encouraged to quarantine within our homes. As for myself, while boringly seated on my couch during such quarantine, for the last week or so, I’ve looked forward to one text message each day more than any other: the Daily Puzzle text from my grandmother.

While some have no relation to any mathematical topics, like the bottom image shown above, others that she sends to my brothers and I, like the top one, directly do. Those that do involve math and the use of numbers are certainly my favorites, and although us high school students can calculate perimeter and area fairly easily, it is still very enjoyable, regardless of the difficulty, to get to solve the puzzles that I receive from my grandmother. Even the second one is entertaining to solve, even though that puzzle is much more demanding to complete. Nonetheless, I am not only glad to solve the puzzles for myself, but I am also happy to solve them for my grandmother. Being older with a higher risk of contradicting a severe case of COVID-19, she needs to find more activities to entertain herself in quarantine, and these daily puzzles are such activities. I’m sure she enjoys sending them to and receiving answers from us as it gives us a way to remain connected in such uncertain times. I am thankful for the Daily Puzzles.