A while back, I asked for financial help for Grey Matters in any way you could help out. There was a very real possibility that I would've been unable to continue Grey Matters, but you, my readers, came through! Thank you very much!

As a thank you to my readers, who come here in the first place because they like to challenge their minds, I thought I'd share some of my favorite puzzles with you.

I'll start with a simple one as a warm up, courtesy of SharpBrains:

Question: The top two scales are in perfect balance. How many diamonds will be needed to balance the bottom set?

Think about it for a while. This is one of those puzzles that will suddenly “click”. You can find the answer here.

The rest of these will be a bit more interactive than the previous one, and they'll also be a little more challenging.

The first of these is an old puzzle, updated to use Flash. It's called SuPuzzle (No, sudoku fans, it's not a sudoku puzzle). All you have to do is connect each of three houses to water, gas, and electricity suppliers, without crossing any lines. It can done, but while you're working through this puzzle, you'll start believing otherwise.

Next, we move to Tom Jolly's Wriggle Puzzle (Java required). Actually Tom has many great variations of this puzzle, in which you try and lead a worm out of the grid, but there's only one playable one on this linked site.

These last two are meant to work through over a longer time. You probably won't work through these tonight. On the other hand, I do have some pretty sharp readers, so who knows?

Our first long-term puzzle is this set of 25 Bulbous Blob Puzzles. In these, you have to slide the pieces around, with the ultimate goal of getting the red blob into the hallway in the upper left. It's a little like those Rush Hour puzzles, but done with a diagonal twist.

This final one will stay with you even after you solve it, because you'll enjoy challenging others with it. It's an old puzzle called Petals Around the Rose. In this version, you're challenged by the website itself to figure out the method behind the scoring of each round. Once you figure it out, you're a Potentate of the Rose! You must keep the secret of the scoring, but if you can carry 5 dice with you, you can challenge others with it as well.

I hope you enjoy these, and I thank you again for helping Grey Matters to continue!