The Science Behind Puzzles

I really enjoyed class this week because it broke down puzzles into a very simple formula and it was easy to see what created the best puzzles. Ultimately it came down to challenge vs. skill and the goal was to be at a perfect 1:1 ratio. The puzzle needs to be hard enough to create a little bit of pressure but also for a puzzle to be enjoyable there needs to be some level of knowledge or skill known by the solver. Personally I find puzzles where have little or no skill behind them to be incredibly boring so the Smithsonian puzzles were absolutely wonderful. They got our entire team to work together and pick out our individual strengths. The challenge was made plain to see and most of it was in the difficulty of the puzzles themselves. But the skills were different among us and so when they matched up fairly evenly that was when they not only became fun but also solvable.

#platypus