Drips

Drips is one of our favourite games from our sister site Wild maths. It's a game for two players (you and the computer in the interactivity below). On his or her turn a player removes as many drips as they like from a single drip trail. Click once to choose, and once again in the same place to confirm the drips you want to take. The winner is the person to take the very last drip.

Press New Game to start, you then have 20 seconds to make the first move before the computer loses patience and starts anyway.

Can you figure out if and how you can win this game? It's not for the mathematically faint-hearted and involves the "pairer" button. For an easier version of the game see Driplets on Wild maths. The game is in fact a version of one of the most famous strategy games in all of maths. Do you know which one?

You can find other strategy games and much more besides on Wild maths, a site which encourages students to explore maths beyond the classroom and is designed to nurture mathematical creativity.