How Many Triangles Are Hiding in This Triangle? The Answer Is Only 5

The answer is 5. This one looks like it should have dozens. It has five — and here’s the exact count, so you can audit us. The picture is one big triangle with the midpoint of each side marked, and those three midpoints joined by straight lines. That divides the big triangle into 4 small triangles: one at the top, one at the bottom-left, one at the bottom-right, and one upside-down in the centre. Now count by size: Small triangles: the 4 little ones — top, bottom-left, bottom-right, and the inverted centre one. That’s 4. The whole triangle: the big outer one counts too. That’s 1. Combinations: can any two small triangles join into a bigger triangle? Try it — every pairing forms a diamond, a parallelogram, or a trapezoid. Never a triangle. That’s 0. 4 + 1 + 0 = 5 triangles. If you said 8 or 9, you were counting the diamond shapes as triangles — they’re the decoys this puzzle is built on. If you said 4, you forgot the whole picture itself counts. Drop your number in the comments, and try tomorrow’s puzzle on our page.