In the Murderous Maths KAKURO book you'll find Kakuros, Sudokus, and Bridge problems, but we've also come up with something different!
The Pure Mathematicians at the Murderous Maths Organisation had spent so much time trying to solve Sudokus and Kakuros that one day they decided to get their revenge. They locked the door to the research lab, then they grabbed a pile of numbers and shapes and performed a series of ghastly experiments on them until suddenly…
Yes! At last they had created something with which they could frustrate the world, and just to make things worse, they gave it the most ridiculous name they could think of. Solving a KJARPOSKO requires a bit of arithmetic, a LOT of detective logic and a maybe even just a bit of luck!
The puzzles involve a selection of boxes which are linked together. Each box is divided into two sections, there is a number on top, and you have to fill a number into the answer space underneath.
There’s only one rule:
Every number on top of a box equals the total of the answers in the bottom of the boxes linked to it.
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Confused? Don’t panic - just look at these three boxes. You need to put the answers 1,2,3 into the spaces indicated by the letters a,b,c. The box with 4 in it is linked to the boxes with the spaces marked b and c. Therefore the numbers you put into b and c must add up to 4. In the same way a+b=5 and a+c=3.
When you fill a number into a space you can cross it off the list at the bottom.
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Here’s the answer:
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There are 21 Kjarposkos in the KAKURO book, along with a few tips and sneaky tricks to get you started.
Here are two of them just to give you a taste!
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In this puzzle you have to put in all the numbers 1-8. You can't use any number more than once, so with a bit of thought you should be able to see where to put your first number.Think it through like this:
- The numbers you put in the two shaded boxes must add to 14 because they are connected to the "14" box. It can't be 7 and 7 because you only use each number once, therefore it must be 8 and 6, but which goes where?
- The numbers you put in the two boxes connected to the "15" box must add to 15. These can only be 7 and 8.
- Therefore what is the only number you can write in the lower part of the "8" box?
- You can now immediately fill in the "10" box, the "9" box and also the "6" box!
- Can you go on to complete the puzzle?
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Now try this one on your own.
You might want to "RIGHT CLICK" the picture and then print it out. If you've no idea where to start, use a pencil to write in a couple of numbers and see how they affect the rest of the puzzle. Even if you guess wrongly, this will help you reach the right answer.
Good luck!
 If you want more, try our
DAILY KJARPOSKO PUZZLE
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KJARPOSKOS © Kjartan Poskitt 2006
All enquiries to:
SCHOLASTIC BOOKS UK,
Euston House, 24 Eversholt St,
London NW1 1DB
020 7756 7756
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TRY TODAY'S KJARPOSKO PUZZLE!
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