Finding A Pair of Socks in the Dark: Recreational Mathematics and Using the Pigeonhole Principle with Young Children

A piece I wrote about recreational mathematics inspired by (of course) Martin Gardner, is far and away the most popular thing I have ever written on Medium. Every week, it just keeps going, with hundreds of people reading it. To this day, I do not know why that is. Lots of recreational math enthusiasts out there, maybe?

A problem I believe attributable to Gardner, which I will be trying with primary-aged children, concerns two different…