Sunday Times Teaser 2984 – Shuffle the Cards

by Victor Bryant

Published December 1 2019 (link)

In the classroom I have a box containing ten cards each with a different digit on it. I asked a child to choose three cards and to pin them up to make a multiplication sum of a one-figure number times a two-figure number. Then I asked the class to do the calculation.

During the exercise the cards fell on the floor and a child pinned them up again, but in a different order. Luckily the new multiplication sum gave the same answer as the first and I was able to display the answer using three of the remaining cards from my box.

What was the displayed answer?