elderly woman using computer
Julie Hambleton
Julie Hambleton
November 11, 2021 ·  2 min read

How Fast Can You Count The Number Of Balls In This Picture Puzzle?

Want to try your hand at a puzzle that includes counting, logic, and problem-solving skills? Then we have just the one for you. This picture features a pyramid made of differently colored balls. Your job is to count the number of balls in the pyramid. Think you can get it right? Moreso, think you can get the right answer quickly? Grab something to time yourself with and keep scrolling.

How Fast Can You Count The Number of Balls In The Pyramid?

At first glance, this seems pretty simple. Just count the number of balls you see in the photo, right? If only it were that simple. This puzzle is going to require a bit deeper thinking than that. You need to pull in not just counting skills. Logic and problem-solving are paramount to solving this puzzle. A couple of basic math skills can’t hurt, either. Take a look at the photo below and see if you can figure out the correct answer. Don’t forget to time yourself!

Ready? Three… two… one… GO! Start your timer and get counting!

The Answer

How many balls did you count in the pyramid? I will tell you right now that if you only counted 16, you are unfortunately wrong. You’ve got to think a little bit more about the pyramid. After all, while you can only see 16 of the balls that make up this pyramid, surely there are more there. If there weren’t, the pyramid wouldn’t be able to stand. No, to solve this you need to think of the number of balls required to make each level.

Let’s begin with the base level. One side is four balls long. To find out the area, aka how balls make up the entire base, you need to multiply this by the number of sides there are. In this case, there are four. Four multiplied by four equals 16. Therefore, the base level contains 16 balls.

Continue applying this method to the next two layers. Layer two has three balls per side, therefore you need to do 3 x 3 = 9. The third layer contains two, which means you need to do 2 x 2 = 4. The top-level has only one ball involved, so no math is required. Next, add up all the levels: 16 + 9 + 4 + 1 = 30.

Therefore, the answer to how many balls are in the pyramid is 30. Were you able to solve it without help?

More Games

If you enjoyed that puzzle, we’ve got more where that came from! Check out the list below to test your brain out a bit more. How many of these can you solve?

Don’t forget to send this to your family and friends so they can join the fun, too!