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Tangle

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Knot

Unwinding today’s yarn…

No layers untied yet. Your no-hint streak is safe.

    📓 Notebook (scribbles saved for today)

    How to play Tangle

    Under every Tangle is a simple question with a real number for an answer, like the distance to the Moon or the number of keys on a piano.

    The question has been tied in knots: double negatives (“not untrue”), ordinal shuffles (“the second of the third”), letters written backwards and sums that add nothing (“plus the number of noses on a snail”).

    • Work out what it’s really asking. Scribble in the notebook if it helps.
    • Stuck? Untie a layer to see one simplification at a time. That breaks your no-hint streak and costs a star.
    • Make one guess. Shorthand works: 12,500, 12.5k, 1.2e4, 12 thousand.
    • Within 5% earns ★★★, within 25% ★★, within a factor of two ★.

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    Past puzzles

    Replay any earlier day. It won’t touch your streak.

      About Tangle

      Tangle is a free daily estimation puzzle wrapped in a word puzzle. Every day, everyone gets the same knot: a perfectly ordinary trivia question with a real numeric answer, which has been deliberately tangled up. You untangle it in your head, then make one guess. Only one.

      The tangles are made of a few favourite tricks. Double negatives: “it is not untrue that” means “it is true that”. Distractions: sums that add nothing, like the number of noses on a snail, or facts that aren’t what’s being asked. Ordinal shuffles: “the fourth planet from the Sun” instead of “Mars”. Letter games: words written backwards or with letters swapped. Peel those away and you’re left with a question like “how many keys does a piano have?”

      Then you estimate. Type your answer however you like: 12,500, 12.5k, 1.2e4 or “twelve thousand” all work. The result screen shows the true answer with its unit and a source, how far off you were, and a closeness meter on a logarithmic scale. Being ten times too big counts the same as being ten times too small. If the community server is reachable, you’ll also see a histogram of everyone’s guesses with your marker on it.

      Need a nudge? Untie a layer to reveal one simplification at a time. It costs a star and breaks your no-hint streak, which the stats track separately from your daily streak. Past knots are in the archive, there’s a bank of practice knots, and you can tie your own knot for others to unpick.

      📖 How to play Tangle: untangle the question, then estimate →