Daily Math Equation

How to play

1. Look at the target number on the right of the equation row — that is the value your finished equation must produce.
2. Tap tiles to drop them into the equation: number tiles fill the three number slots, operator tiles fill the two operator slots. Tap a filled slot (or Undo) to take a tile back.
3. Press Submit when all five slots are filled. Each slot then shows green (right tile, right place), amber (this tile is in the equation, but elsewhere) or gray (not in the equation at all).
4. Use the feedback to rearrange within 6 tries. Any arrangement of the correct five tiles that genuinely equals the target is accepted as an alternate solution.

Rules

• One equation per day, keyed to midnight UTC — the same board and the same shuffled tile pool for everyone.
• The equation always has the shape number · operator · number · operator · number = target, and normal order of operations applies: × and ÷ are evaluated before + and −.
• The 8-tile pool contains the 5 answer tiles plus 3 decoys (two numbers and one operator that appear nowhere in the answer).
• Division must come out exact — an arrangement that produces a fraction is rejected without costing a try.
• Submitting the exact same arrangement twice is blocked, and 6 wrong submissions end the round with the solution and its steps revealed.

Scoring & streaks

Your result is the number of tries you needed (1–6), shown with your full guess history as an emoji grid that never spoils the answer. Solving the genuine daily board — not an archive replay — extends your day streak, stored only on your own device. An alternate-arrangement win counts exactly like an exact win.

Strategy tips

• Start from the target's size. A big target usually means × sits next to the biggest number; a small target with big numbers on the board almost always hides a division.
• Check divisibility before placing ÷: if no number tile divides another cleanly, division is probably the decoy operator.
• Remember precedence: in a + b × c the multiplication happens first, so a small + can still produce a large target.
• Use a cheap first guess to harvest feedback — even a wrong equation tells you which tiles are in the answer (amber) and which are dead (gray).
• The computed result of your guess is shown next to each history row; compare it to the target to sense whether you are over- or under-shooting.

Difficulty

A typical board takes 2–5 minutes. The arithmetic itself stays small (nothing beyond 12× tables and exact division), so the challenge is logical, not computational: spotting the decoys and respecting order of operations. Boards do not get harder through the week — every day stands alone.

Controls

• Mouse or touch: tap a tile to place it in the next fitting slot; tap a filled slot to return its tile; Undo removes the last placed tile and Clear empties all slots.
• Keyboard: move with Tab and place or remove tiles with Enter or Space — every tile and slot is a real button.
• Submit activates only when all five slots are filled.

Accessibility

Feedback is never color-only: each slot's state is exposed to screen readers, announcements (result value, tries left, solution revealed) go through a polite live region, and green/amber/gray cells keep readable contrast in both light and dark themes. The board fits small phone screens without horizontal scrolling.