Most of us have an fondness for puzzles. Even the die hard, self proclaimed "lazy" person who has no desire to think beyond what he or she is having for dinner does, at some point, gravitate toward some type of puzzle.

The temptation to beat it, to overcome the challenge and be victorious often drives even the most apathetic person to give in and satisfy their curiosity or maybe a slightly competitive spirit. Whatever the case, there is just something about a good puzzle that drives you to answer it.

It sits there, taunting you, igniting that spark of competition, when you dive in and find the answer.

It was this aspect of the human condition that Henry Ernest Dudeney was counting on when he created his first math puzzles.

It was also what he was thinking of when he wrote the book "Amusements in Mathematics" which was chock full of amazing math puzzles ranging from the most simplistic to extremely difficult. It had logic puzzles and math brain teasers, showing readers that math is fun. What's more, nearly a century after its first publication, it is still popular and still confounding even the most astute mathematical wizard. These math puzzles by Dudeney have withstood the test of time.

It was also in "Amusements in Mathematics" that Dudeney referred to the drive that humans have to think and work out conundrums, to satisfy that natural curiosity. He wrote in the preface to "Amusements in Mathematics," "The history of mathematical puzzles entails nothing short of the actual story of the beginnings and development of exact thinking in man."

Dudeney's passion for math and math puzzles began at an early age. In fact, is quite likely that he inherited his love of math from his grandfather. Dudeney's grandfather was a shepherd, but he also taught himself mathematics as well as astronomy. He became so enthralled with math, though, that he eventually stopped shepherding and became a schoolmaster. Additionally, Dudeney's father was a school teacher.

Dudeney's grandfather taught him chess when he was very young. He fell in love with the game and enjoyed playing it throughout his life. His love of chess eventually led him to devise chess problems which led to math puzzles. By the time that he was nine years old, Dudeney was publishing his math puzzles and math brain teasers in his local newspaper.

Despite his love of math, Dudeney did not have a formal education. He maintained math as his passion, but he never pursued it at a collegiate level. He never attended college, however, he did self study math and history.

In his book, "Amusements in Mathematics," Dudeney wrote of the psychology of puzzles. He wrote that we spend a great deal of our lives solving puzzles. Puzzles, according to Dudeney, were nothing more than perplexing questions. He asserted that we are constantly asking questions or trying to answer questions from childhood until death.

He said that essentially we had to solve puzzles, that it was a drive, a need, a necessity of life. He believed that solving puzzles was just a matter of employing our reasoning facilities. Mental hospitals, Dudeney said, were built specifically for the "unfortunate" people who are unable to solve puzzles.

Dudeney brought math to life for many people. His math puzzles, logic puzzles and math brain teasers are a great source of entertainment, education and mental exercise nearly 100 years after they were first created. He showed us that thinking is a good thing, working out puzzling questions is a good thing and, most of all, he showed us that math is fun.

The Pierrot in the illustration is standing in a posture that represents the sign of multiplication. He is indicating the peculiar fact that 15 multiplied by 93 produces exactly the same figures (1,395), differently arranged. The puzzle is to take any four digits you like (all different) and similarly arrange them so that the number formed on one side of the Pierrot when multiplied by the number on the other side shall produce the same figures. There are very few ways of doing it, and I shall give all the cases possible. Can you find them all? You are allowed to put two figures on each side of the Pierrot as in the example shown, or to place a single figure on one side and three figures on the other. If we only used three digits instead of four, the only possible ways are these: 3 multiplied by 51 equals 153, and 6 multiplied by 21 equals 126.

How did you go

There are just six different solutions to this puzzle, as follows:-

It will be seen that in every case the two multipliers contain exactly the same figures as the product.