Solve the math puzzle from our October 2026 issue, in which a bird watcher seeks an indoor hobby.
In a parallel universe, bird watchers who are tired of sunburns and bug bites have taken up a tamer, more indoor interest: polygons. The ex-birders go from figure to figure, tracing the existing line segments, trying to spot geometric shapes with various numbers of sides. In the figure below, they’ve found shapes with three, four and five sides.
In this new hobby, the former birders seek only polygons: closed shapes with no holes, no crisscrossing edges and no corners touching each other. Go to sciencenews.org/puzzle-answers. We’d love to hear your thoughts.
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Cosmic amnesia