1001 Writing Prompts About Math - Commaful Storytelling Blog

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In 2006, John Green released An Abundance of Katherines—a young adult novel that follows Colin Singleton, a prodigy who only dates girls who are named Katherine. Complex equations play a huge role in its story, so Green asked his mathematician friend Daniel Biss to an appendix to explain them.

Don’t you find it fascinating how Green was able to incorporate math in his novel?

As a writer, you’ve probably never imagined math and creative writing going together but, believe it or not, they actually do. In fact, authors have been incorporating math into their stories for centuries now and labeling them as mathematical fiction —a genre in which mathematics and mathematicians play important roles.

If you are now interested in writing short stories and novels inspired by math, here are writing prompts you might find helpful:

A math genius challenges you to a race.
You are the product of an experiment that has gone wrong and you find yourself in a world of magic.
You are in a plane crash and must calculate your altitude to allow a safe landing.
Your pet comes to life and asks for your guidance in math to help solve the killer unicorn mystery.
You are tasked with determining how many fiendish schemes leading to world domination would require “only” a trillion googol. How many would require a million and how many would require googol googol?
On the bus ride home from school you figure out a new method of speeding up a very labor-intensive mathematical conversion process.
A student who loves math suffers an injury and loses his or her memory. Everyone else’s memories are wiped, too, so they don’t know how great the student used to be at math.
A secret agent moves in next door to you that specializes in using math to get information from people.
The science fair is all about math.
You solve a mystery using math.
You are trapped in a cave with a mathematician. No one knows you know math. What is the outcome?
You have a strange superpower related to math.
Magic only works when math finds a reason to agree to it.
The Great Math Problem must be solved.
A math museum opens.
You are in a school where only math is taught, and everyone is a genius at math.
A monster appears at the door when you are working on a math problem.
The AIs created the universe. The problem is they don’t think math is very challenging.
You are born a genius at math, and you plan to keep it a secret.
You are Sherlock Holmes and the murderer has made clever tracks with math.
The summer school experience is mandatory.
The secret to eternal life is buried in a mathematical equation.
There once was a boy king with his younger sister, who made a terrible mistake.
You feel out the location of honey.
You put someone’s soul inside a calculator.
A genius at math is out to get you.
You have devised a genius number theory or algorithm for a math problem. But because you are not as good in the rest of the other subjects, you need a human network of other students to help you complete it.
You are the smarter sibling of a math whiz.
You are visited by a math devil. He wants the code to the Gate of Truth.
You are an alter ego of yourself where you now exclusively write math short stories.
Write an essay prompted by funny mathematical quotes . For example,
You have a secret life as a mathematician.
You tutor a guard at math.
A video game of math vs. math exists.
Someone has invented a solution to a problem which is slow but simple.
In a virtual reality world there are only numbers and operations.
You have the ability to speak math and anyone who can hear you understands instantly.
You meet your own alternate dimension self.
You have committed to a dream job as a math professor in Poland.
A former student comes back to tell you they are in prison and you feel guilty.
The government can give you a magic wand that has one special effect. What would it be and why?
You are a math theory and try to figure out the practical math problems that everyone faces in the real world.
Your character does not realize how good he or she is at math.
You are a king, and you command the loyal servants to create math problems for the solutions of which you award gold.
There is a graveyard game of math.
The planet is counting on you to save the planet from a giant asteroid.
You are seeking love, but somehow everything is all about math.
You are told to spend an ordinary day thinking about math.
Time travel and math.
A person is condemned to death by math and you are the one to do it.
You are caught using math that violates the laws of physics.
A video game is announced with an impossible level. The cost is $1,000?? to whoever gets 3 stars on it.
You win money for the smartest people to submit homework solutions.
Your biggest success is attributed to a mathematical formula.
You are studying math and it’s about to eat you alive.
You have found a formula for success.
The world is ending unless you can solve a math problem.
It is a math themed wedding.
You can only speak math.
Ten uses of math
You broke into a bank to change a banking system and aren’t sure how you plan to get out of this one.
You discover math is a living being.
An old scorecard from a baseball game that has taken on a new interest has your name on it.
A family member is kidnapped and discovered to be a prodigy at math.
With your new math powers, you decide to take over the world.
You are a math tutor behind a college student who is studying for the math final as he furtively glanced over your shoulder.
The school changes the name of its mascot to an equation.
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500-Word Nonfiction
You are mentoring a mathematical genius.
A contest is held and the prize is to appear on the cover of a math book.
You choose to go back in time and become a famous mathematician.
You have a math tutor who begins to challenge some of your beliefs about math.
You are asked to solve the world’s greatest mysteries by helping a mathematician to find a solution to the greatest math problem of all time.
For the next year, to be admitted to your high school you must solve X problem.
You find out the answer to life’s greatest problem.
Why your math genius teacher is portrayed as evil in the movies.
You are a wizard, running out of source material.
You remember where you went to school – your whole life. Except you have been asked to describe it from a mathematical point of view.
You are a famous writer, and it is suggested that creating a theorem will turn you into a math hero.
Mathematics is declared illegal against the will of the world. They’re going to jail anyone that uses math or creates mathematics.
You are the world’s most promising young mathematician.
Math starts to go wrong and you have to find out why.
The toy line you create turns out to be a real insight to the world of next generation math.
There’s more than one truth! Conclusions are often incorrect. Now go connect yours to these writing prompts.
You are stuck in a time loop where you relive the same infinite number of days for the rest of your life.
You are able to move objects with your mind.
You get a job designing video games.
The citizens of the town are disappearing and you must find out what happened by using mathematics to solve the case.
The school has run out of funds, but there is a small golden statue hallowed by past mathematics legends.
A contest was put on by a famous mathematician for your town.
You are ambivalent about math.
A stranger walks up to you and tells you about math.
You have to do a math experiment and cheat because it seems impossible without help.
The world is going into chaos and math is the only thing that can save it.
Math to the rescue when the world ends.
You are in space. You run out of fuel. You need something to find you a new fuel source before you die. Trouble is, you just can’t do it without help.
The principal doesn’t like math.
You are tasked with finding a cure to a deadly disease.
Statistics as it relates to a popular form of entertainment.
You want to be more popular so you start hanging around with the math nerds, which really frustrates your own friends because they think you have somehow defected to the dark side.
Weird social antics following the school being reopened.
A script for a play or movie with math in it.
Things are flying out of a cup your sister has in their hands and you must figure out what’s happening to the math.
You get in a debate with a friend about math.
No math in space.
Your people need a mathematician and you can become one.
Your teacher has 666 students.
The thing you fear the most, and the thing you are bad at are one and the same and you have to face it.
A lover gives you a math problem.
The school is doing a math-based fundraiser.
One student is a math whiz and the other is not.
Mathematics is life or death.
Your smartest enemy is trying to make you look bad at math.
Common Core State Standards is in full effect. You are the director.
While you struggle over your math homework, your friend lies in a coma. The only way to bring them around is to tell them what is the problem trying to solve and then to do the math. How to help them wake depends on how complicated the problem is.
You are part of a select group of math experts.
One day you notice that you get opportunities when you are wearing a hat, but they are stolen away if you do not have it.
A student named Penaldi goes missing. He has a very unusual accent.
You are training to be a giantkiller.
Your best friend challenges you to a math problem a day.
Math is banned in your country.
You wish to create a map of the terrain.
A child is born with one math point on his/her forehead.
A mind-wiping machine has been invented and is about to be put to use.
Your family accidentally moves into a math world.
Set in the future, where everything has numbers controlling it.
You are the subject of an experiment that makes you smarter in mathematics.
A lottery entitles you to high school or college but you lose the ticket, and have to study math to get into college.
You show up for a job interview and are asked, “What is the answer to life?”
You have the ability to make math come true. What do you do with this ability?
Genetics are discovered which cause you to be born with a perfect math brain.
You cannot do math, and you need to help someone who does math.
A famous mathematician writes to you about a killer math problem they have devised.
You are hit with meteorites and need to calculate the amount of metal you must gather before the end of the world.
You make a dart board with the prime numbers 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29 on them and then have to split it up so the prime number darts won’t touch the other primes.
You become a mathematical superhero.
You are cast into outer space and have to figure out how to survive.
You want to be recognized for your math skills.
You survive a terrible disaster and use math to yourself and others afterward.
One math equation will eradicate humanity.
You learn how to use math to predict reality for fun and profit.
You are suddenly able to find Pi.
The person you are tutoring ends up being a famous person in a time far in the future, and they want you to know more about them.
You try to prevent math from being developed, but it happens anyway.
You find a number in a trashcan, and all it says is someone’s name.
You find a problem that needs to have its solution checked.
You are tutoring a famous person at math.
The summer math camp is no longer an option because of the economy.
A day in your life as a mathematician.
Your client has been accused of a crime and you are hired to determine whether they are guilty or innocent.
Blockbuster movies are a thing of the past, but your mom wants to create one.
You are a high school student chosen to compete in the National Mathsturnational competition.
You are tutoring someone in math. It’s gone bad.
Math is the only subject you need to study.
You are on a sinking ship, and the only way to stop the leaks is to calculate the sections of the boat that are able to float with respect to the water in them.
How to make math not suck
The history of mankind has been manipulated through math.
As a new home-owner, you notice math everywhere.
How math has changed the world.
Nothing is what it seems on the surface.
The school holds a math off.
The protagonist loses his or her math skills–either voluntarily or involuntarily.
You have two hours to answer a math question.
An ancient all-knowing math book is found.
You are playing a game and cheating.
Your dreams have math poking a large role.
Someone made a horrible math video on YouTube. Now, you have to fix it.
You discover a mathematical artifact.
Your family breaks a secret code in a fortune cookie.
You are pitted against an opponent in a tournament where knowledge of mathematical concepts determines the winner.
Your dream is to win a math world contest, like the Mathematics Olympiads.
You are in charge of inventing a new branch of math which does not exist yet.
Your math teacher gives you a mathematical puzzle.
The only problem is that you were born a century too early and that famous person is a century too early.
You have seven magic emeralds which will let you rewrite math. How do you do it?
You time travel to different time periods. Give math exercises or problems for that part of history.
You are manipulated by mysterious moral forces when you study math leading to murder/suicide/world domination.
You encounter a deadly robot in deep space and it needs math to compute its next move.
Somebody is after you because of your math skills.
You find a door in the middle of a deserted island that takes you to a portal world where everything is math.
Your history teacher is Gandalf the Elven.
A famous math wizard joins your school.
You are going to be a superhero who controls the realm of numbers.
A next-door neighbor wants to know how much he owes you for the water to his house.
You would see your dog be killed for a math equation.
You’re playing Family Feud when you hear one of the answers is math.
A nighttime school is started where people have the ability to levitate.
The world’s smartest person thinks they no longer have a need for math.
You are tasked with preventing a terrible crime that is being plotted with algebra.
You need to solve a very complicated math riddle.
You learn of a device made to measure truth. Your job is to program it.
A child is able to read minds. He can also do math in his head.
Your grade in math directly affects your grade in science.
Technicolor distracts you from solving math word problems.
You are about to die. You start to count the number of lives you have lived.
A great leader in either mathematics or commandments has commanded that you engage in random acts of math.
The courts must rely on critical thinking to solve a case.
Your wife starts speaking to you in math.
You are teaching weird math.
You go back in time to share math with a famous historical figure.
Your grandfather keeps asking you difficult math problems.
You are handed a strange rock that brings you good luck when you do math.
Show a trap a smart person falls into.
No one can remember their multiplication tables.
A strange person has approached you to join a club of math betters.
One million dollars is lost, and you’re hired to try to calculate where it went.
One of your friends is not good at math.
You discover the next seven digit prime number.
You’ve just learned the lost writing of Isaac Newton.
You accidentally mutate into a number and the next person who corrects your personality has to take your place.
Math is banned in the school. How throughout are your efforts …
An old math professor explains why the numbers all around you are special.
You discover a brilliant student as you instruct a test.
The world’s greatest dynasty is destroyed by opposing arithmetic factions.
A math test is being administered at the school, but math requires a person to apply it.
You win a computer that is designed to help you get good grades in math, but it doesn’t seem to help.
You are a math teacher who is recruited…
The next horror movie out is a spoof of math.
When you type a certain sequence of numbers into a calculator, the calculator will allow you to see one minute into the future.
You are the child of two Fields Medal winners in math.
You are given the choice to be rich or to be the world’s finest mathematician.
Something Ancient Screeching Librarians want is buried under the school.
The villain in your story is obsessed with modeling.
You don’t like math but things happen to you and you have to use it.
You’ve decided to challenge a math problem for a reward.
You are taken hostage from your school and told you could bring peace to the world if you created a formula.
A once highly regarded mathematician has become a third-rate mathematician.
What makes a good math teacher?
You have to teach your math teacher math.
You must pretend to be a famous mathematician.
A wild, Imaginary Number appears asking for help!
Your biggest fear is math.
A magical puzzle puts you in the mind of a famous mathematician.
You steal a valuable from a government secure vault located in an elementary school.
Some of these prompts could easily be used for writing explorations on the nature of math, and teaching students about the history of mathematics might also be helpful as well as discussing the nature of mathematics during this time period.
The spaceship needs math to save it.
You discover a new mathematical phenomenon and need to write it.
Your favorite mathematician is held responsible for the breakdown of the local economy and poverty rates are too high.
You are called up before a committee who interrogates you about your ability to do math.
You enter a science fair with a project involving math.
Everything you thought you knew about math is wrong.
You have a math superpower.
The government is going to overthrow via math.
The school is going to play your mathematics instructor’s school in what will be a math-off.
Something unusual is happening and mathematics is at the center.
The world has only one math problem.
A new teacher has arrived. There is a rumor that she is a mathematical whiz.
The entire world is solved through math.
You discover a formula for changing your future.
You have the ability to use math to see events in your future.
Programming a computer requires knowledge of math.
One of your spirits dwells in one of the numbers in your magic bracelet.
When a radioactive rabbit spawns a group of mutants they run wild punching math problems in the face, math problems have to get serious. See Rabid Maths Mutants
You are a math tutor that hasn’t tutored anyone in three years, but a famous person is calling you for tutoring.
You win a math prize at school, and the prize is cool and useful.
A radio station is giving away prizes and one is a simple math problem.
You must design a math test for a college.
Your parents need money and they pick math. You will have no time for school.
Clones of you are made, but only one can be chosen to live.
You are a hacker who uses math to do said hacking.
The math squad is approached about lending its expertise to everyone’s favorite game show.
You are given the responsibility of determining what to name a newly discovered species. Name this species after yourself.
There is nothing more pleasing to a mathematician than to solve a seemingly impossible riddle.
The Nazis are coming and you must save the Jewish high-school geniuses.
Begin thinking about how to teach mathematics to a second grader.
A math competition is coming, and you’re aiming for first prize.
Write a story about a problem with numbers or when applying numbers creates a problem.
A new game show has taken the world by storm, answering difficult questions about math with a new way of measuring intelligence. Can your character match their knowledge?
A story about a genius and how they came to be.
You discover a formula that changes the future.
Here are some math riddles
You are an observer from a post-apocalyptic time. You have been dying to visit your time. As they attempt to study math, you think to yourself that they are completely missing the point.
A supercomputer gives you powers related to math.
You have been exiled to a primitive world populated by cavemen. The only written legacy you had is how to do math.
Twenty minutes before the kick-off, you realize everyone on the team is terrible at math, and you are the only guy at school who can solve the problem.
Charlotte, Cram, Fibonacci, and Pirie are locked together in a room and given magic pillows that have the power to wake one of them to solve a challenging math problem.
As a spirit, you are captured and have the choice of being any deceased person but Shakespeare or Iamblichus.
A stray dog is wandering the neighborhood.
You are a mathematics scientist that creates top-secret gadgets for the government.
You travel from the past to the future and see what you will become.
Anything with math in it.
You are the math music.
The teacher hates math.
You get a wish that can only be fulfilled by solving a math problem.
A famous mathematician leaves you their fortune in the form of math problems.
The only way out of a cursed exam is to solve a timely problem.
A city cannot be built unless the citizens adhere to math standards.
Some of the greatest in math are immortal.
When you wake up in the future, mathematics no longer exists.
You work in a bakery and you love math—to the pitiful bewilderment of your co-workers.
The game of life and death.
You are a math wizard.
Imagine you are a machine that can produce sounds.
You just won a bounty offered by the royal family for someone who can solve a dream.
The hands of the clock on the quad mounted on a wall move too quickly.
You have a brain unlike anyone else’s.
Tell the tale of the person in front of your life in math.
You adopted a math teaching system from a future time.
You find out you can see a person’s entire life simply by looking at numbers.
You have a genetically engineered living calculator.
You didn’t take care of your goldfish but wonder if you still have it.
You are a bookkeeper.
You are the headmaster of a school for the gifted. You must choose the gifted children that would benefit the school the most.
A foreign prince is visiting and challenges you to a math competition.
You need to survive a Zombie Apocalypse.
You discover a mathematical pattern.
You are given a basic number and must figure out why the number obviously is wrong.
You have been kidnapped and have been abandoned in an unknown location.
Mathematics has an evil twin and it is ruining all of mankind.
You try to make sense of theoretical physics.
You see a mathematical muse as you walk through the park.
Beauty raises math grades.
After failing a math exam, the teacher tore up the test only putting your name down.
You wake up in a world where mathematics doesn’t exist anymore.
Other people look down on you and your mastery of math.
Someone has just invented a new mathematical concept and wants you to be the first to show the world.
Math has been proven to have no practical use whatsoever.
Should the school require a minimum amount of math knowledge be public knowledge.
You score a perfect test score in math.
You have the power to affect probability through math.
A giant is terrorizing the town.
Math is sports. It can be any sport.
A robot needs a brain to learn math.
You are given an item that will grant you one wish, and you wish for math abilities.
A war breaks out between the grades because of your math talent.
The Grim Reaper wants to help humanity through math.
Unscramble the numbers to get the…
You are being punished for your poor mathematics skills.
The world is coming to an end and only math can save it.
You have created a formula that makes you more successful than Bill Gates in math.
You are killed for being a mathematician.
You are a history teacher with big plans to have your students do math.
An avatar is challenging your math abilities.
You are tutoring a famous person in math.
Teachers don’t make as much as you would think.
Only math geniuses are encouraged to apply to this university program.
You get a job as a mathematician in a black market operation.
You are stuck in detention and do the math.
You are forced to solve an incredibly complex math problem given to you by a criminal.
You learn a new system of math that makes you a super scientist.
You have somehow stepped into a world where all the laws of math are different.
You are a math whiz at a terrible private school.
You have bad grades at math.
You find the world’s secret form of math communication,
An adult writes down the wrong ticket number in front of you.
Enjoy! Share your comments, thoughts and experiences below. And continue to share this list. This list has been equally loved by adults, teens, and teachers and writers.
You are the world chess champion and need math to develop a new strategy.
Your math teacher is your enemy.
You must go on an epic journey for a famous mathematician.
You are setting off into space and you need math.
You are provided with a super calculator and it saves the world.
You are asked to be the math coach for the world’s best team.
Breaking the sound barrier isn’t easy and the only people to succeed have been mathematicians.
You decorate your hair with numbers.
You compete in a math competition, and are not allowed to ask people for math help.
A carnival comes to town with a museum of math inside.
You are applying for a job in a magical world where all is done with math.
You are teaching math.
The students need a new math curriculum.
You are challenged to solve the most unexpected bit of math ever.
Your math teacher gets trapped inside your calculator.
You discover an ancient culture that worshipped mathematics.
You are suggesting an easy way to decrease people’s fears of math.
You discover a formula that will produce a new invention.
A strange new teacher appears at the school, introducing a new method of math.
Your science experiment is based on math.
Your character is the “Town Wizard” but is really the Emperor’s mathematician.
During an average day at school, you solve three math major problems without a calculator, and neither the teacher nor anyone else has any clue what you’re doing.
The president is doing a reading of her new education platform and gets stuck on a math word problem.
A student at the school tries to challenge you to a math battle only to back away when they realize you are better than they are.
A world was created with math.
Math is suddenly outlawed and you are one of few who can hide the fact that you are good at it.
The answers your teachers give always makes perfectly logical sense, but they are incorrect.
A friend challenges your math skills.
You have become a slave of your math.
Crime can only be solved with math.
You wake up in a strange place with no idea where you are or how you got there.
Math isn’t what you thought it was.
You have to catch a killer who is after anyone who can solve a hard problem.
You answer a mysterious ad. The ad claims to offer immortality or a book written from the mind of Muhammed.
You have ten years to improve mathematics at your school.
Someone changes the equation for games so that they win.
You discover a new type of math.
Your math sense runs in your family.
A mad science teacher invents a crazy real-world calculator.
Mathematicians work out of time like everyone else lives in time.
You instantly master everything related to math as soon as you touch a pencil to paper.
You and your best friend both embark on a journey of mathematical discovery together.
At school, you discover a freshman can change the math of the past.
You are given a million dollars and you can only use it to buy something mathematical.
You live in a world where there is no arithmetic, no algebra, no geometry, no graph theory.
You have to take a math test while someone has locked the door from the outside so you can’t escape.
The best friend of your worst enemy is the child of a famous mathematician.
Factors, prime numbers and the math you’ll need to get an A.
A famous family is gathered together around the dinner table.
Math may be the world’s second best option for your chosen profession.
You discover that a relative is cheating at math.
How you win the national math competition.
You meet a time traveler.
You get invited to join a worldwide math competition which only you can try.
The government wants to censor math.
Sometimes math is creative.
You wake up on a desert isle with just a chalkboard for company.
Math is banned.
The world’s greatest inventor joins your school for a short time. She says inner beauty counts—but the destiny of the world rests with math.
I suggest taking the above prompts and giving them whatever spin you like.
Your parents are from an uncommon math background.
A person reaches the highest level of math education and has a profound question that has no answer, no matter how much math they learn.
The mathematical idea that changed the world.
A genius is given a problem and only after they solve is revealed the problem’s purpose.
You are tasked to invent an entirely new math idea.
You learn a complex game that you think a math genius invented.
Objects have been disappearing all day.
You are a famous mathematician.
You are hired to tutor a pod from outer space.
Teachers take over the world via brainwashing.
A famous young math genius comes to school against her will, and she wants no part in the event.
The first question asked in most interviews is about math.
You are tasked with creating the world’s largest math lesson.
Pop art is math.
You have volunteered to tutor the world’s most famous billionaire’s son in math.
You discover a strange math equation of unknown origins.
Writing Prompts about Forces
You must solve a math equation using every imaginable method, even the impossible ones.
Your pen suddenly sprouts the ability to understand math. It is a gift from the gods.
Your boyfriend/girlfriend is dating someone else who is a math major.
You compete in a math competition.
You go back in time to kill the mathematician who invented math.
You are tasked with tutoring the child of a famous person. You are new in town and need to make friends.
The two subjects that your uncle really wants to become parents before he dies are math and art.
This person is your least favorite person.
You are meeting someone who is better at math than you
You use math to send a message in a bottle.
Math is not your favorite subject but you are inexplicably drawn to it.
A mysterious mathematician is honored for his accomplishments and either dies of fright or lives, expanding pi to million digits.
What makes the field of Mathematics unique?
When you are ten, people treat you like a professional mathematician.
You are the new ponytail kid.
You are locked in a room by horse thieves.
You are a teacher of a gifted program in math.
You have to match wits with your evil math teacher.
You’ve been transported back in time to the Stone Age. Which of your modern odd notions about math will be accepted?
Something happens that changes your life, causing you to seek mathematical answers.
Yes no maybe
Your math test scores are revealed by a DJ.
A math teacher discovers a secret about a famous mathematician.
Your hero, a famous person, wants to go on an adventure using math skills.
Your school geometry teacher eats chalk dust.
A math professor hires you to find her lost research.
The future of your universe depends on your math skills.
Prompts are a great way to start a story. Another approach to teaching the mathematical uses of narrative is to go through literature and do direct analysis or retellings of the work in order to make it easier for the student to create their own work. A work of literature can be chosen based on mathematics they can use to center their story upon such as themes, novel applications of math, and characters. This virtually cuts down the process of imaginative works to connect with algebra, geometry, trigonometry, calculus, and applied science. Variations like using storyboard art of simple scenes drawn by the students can be a great analytic approach to help the student work out their ideas. Then once the work is complete it requires peer review.
There’s a math competition on TV and also on the local news.
You are Shakespeare.
You are intrigued by what your sibling does at school, but he is/she is bad at math.
A genius just moved to your town!
You are in a video game where you must use math to defeat a difficult boss.
A twelfth grader is forced to play with the little kids. The results are surprising.
You create a game, a theory, or a mathematical law.
A famous mathematician is kidnapped and must figure out a puzzle for his freedom.
We are given a function and must find the inverse equals function.
Those are wildly diverse. Like a good writing prompt should, they are open ended. Their scope is global, not local – or all in your head.
Your characters fight a giant math problem.
Someone idolizes a famous mathematician, and you must decide whether to debunk or honor the idol.
Renaissance artists and mathematicians take over high school.
The best manager to work for in baseball is the manager with the highest math scores.
You are stranded on an island without technology and want to start a fire.
You are an athlete who is thrilled by math.
Your calculator is only giving you answers that are way off.
You are an astronaut who isn’t allowed to return to earth until you can share with the earthlings why math is so
You are trying to discover the next Miss, Mr or Mrs Math.
Nobody human can solve a monstrously improbable math problem.
You are on trial for murder, and must prove your innocence using math.
You are the greatest mystery writer in the world and want to improve, so, you work on math instead of your writing.
Your crummy math grade ruined your family life.
You are tasked with tutoring a famous computer person at math.
You are bored with math until you see a nearby fire and realize you might be able to calculate the direction of the wind that started the fire.
One of your greatest enemies is taking down math.
A beast is terrorizing princesses throughout the land using a mathematical equation…but you can stop it.
You are part of a Death Day game, and you must complete challenges that involve the math of your life.
You are compiling a research paper about a famous mathematician.
A movie is being made about a famous mathematician and you’ve been selected for a small role.
You see something through a lens that allows you to see things differently.
You are asked to calculate the odds for a nightmare that has already happened.
The child is smart, playful and naughtier than any child you’ve ever met.
Your favorite study subject is math.
You are the greatest mathematician presently alive.
The world’s best mathematicians travel to a distant land to compete in a contest. They are confused by an impossible problem.
A math problem is attacking your town.
A plague has arrived and the people who die second must carry around the bodies of those who died first until they themselves die. A prophet has predicted that knowledge of math will aid your survival.
Your family is killed by someone using math.
You are hired as a math tutor for a famous person.
You make yourself a demon at math tutoring.
Your usually hated teacher loves math.
You are Merlin, and an unknown wizard gave you a book, but only spoke one word. This word must be the partial key to finding the spell, but you do not know which word or how to craft a search to locate the word. You also do not know if you are dealing with a numerical search or an alphanumeric search. If a numerical search, is it a substring or a fragment match? If an alphanumeric search, what character set scheme is used? It is up to you to formulate a search strategy to find the word.
You don’t know it, but you live in a world where math rules everything around you.
Someone has invented a pill that makes people smarter at math.
Your child loves math ever since you introduced it into their life.
It’s hot, dry, and not raining anytime soon. You need to figure out how you can make it rain or the animals will all die.
You need the answer to a mathematical question to save a life.
You find a treasure map engraved with mathematical riddles.
Mathematics without a calculator.
Someone really famous is stuck in a place where they don’t know what time it is. You go and help get them out using math.
You know a secret about math and fear that someone will figure it out.
You are an animal specialist in France.
You are tutoring several children, each with a different set of math skills.
Your investigation of a math scandal reveals the amazing story behind a great mathematician.
Step-by-Step Procedures
You are in a bomb raid and need to calculate the chance that you will survive.
Someone steals your math book.
You live in a magical mirror world that contains only math problems.
An abominable bunny is stealing magical prime numbers.
You get a summer job at the comet factory.
Your school is advanced and state of the art paperless environment but you have no idea how to use it.
The answer is ALWAYS zero.
Your new neighbor is a mathematician.
After achieving great wealth, from what source do you spend it?
You realize your special gift for math means you are born under a dark star.
You awake from a cryogenic freeze in the future and everyone can do math in their head.
Math is beautiful, but it is a dirty truth to accept that it is the only beautiful and subjective truth left to understand.
You find yourself fighting an evil wizard who specializes in math.
At the gymnasium you discover a teacher playing algebra with sticks.
Your math teacher asks you to solve a complex mystery.
Your math team loses their coach one week before the state competition.
You must prove you are right or you will be kicked off your team racing to the stars.
You have been plucked from obscurity and joined the world’s famous mathematician.
You were not born in this world.
Someone important to you doesn’t understand math. What would you do?
The apocalypse occurs and the only way to fix it is through math.
You tutor somebody in math who doesn’t already know it and show them the dark secrets of its magic.
A mathematician dies and drops a flash drive with information leading to the world’s most advanced math formula. It’s up to you to decipher the clues.
You return in time to apply your math correctly.
You are given the opportunity to go back and meet one famous wom in math.
Leaning tablets where the sum of both numbers is equal to 100 can be fabricated. They come in several different orders. Decode the code for your tutor.
Your math teacher hates you.
The teacher just clicked all the clocks forward 10 minutes and no one noticed but you.
Your dead spouse was better at math than you.
You discover an ancient code and must figure out the next symbol.
Someone you know has been caught with drugs and wants you to save his or her job by giving you a key to offices and documentation before the cops come knocking.
Your town has declared March math madness month.
You are one of a group of math geniuses.
The queen’s crown was stolen. The king believes there is a mathematical solution.
You can move any number of spaces around the board to get to the end first.
You have won a contest and are awarded a math tutor.
The school is infested by math-wizards.
You’re on a problem solving sport team with a random mix of school subjects featured for your focus.
A meteorite lands on your math test.
A magician wants to know if mathematical axioms are the same throughout the multiverse. You learn that the Pythagorean theorem works, when you are severely injured in a different version of the multiverse.
Which mathematical object represents love
The school soccer team has an undefeated, untied season.
The boy you teach just started doing math.
You are a superhero who can solve any problem using math.
You need to write a letter about the importance of math.
You are applying for a job. You are forced to demonstrate your knowledge of math.
The reporter got his eyebrows kind of wrong.
Your irrepressible enthusiasm for math disturbs the staid and traditional teachers at your school.
You are a detective with the ability to perform mathlike calculations.
Your math obsession got you kicked out of college and you are left with the months before your graduation to study math and prove them wrong.
For those writers out there–would you be interested in writing a story using math as its major theme? Let us know in a comment or send them to me directly.
You forgive someone for stealing your idea for something.
You get a call saying someone has stolen a number.
You are the first astronaut to journey through space.
A long lost family code is discovered.
The school is sucked into the number grid.
The exclusive school for spies sends your math student to prove yourself.
The school is making one of Canada’s great mathematician’s algebra more difficult.
You are the only mathematician who can save the world.
You find yourself trapped in a deadly maze created by a math genius.
Math suddenly pops up everywhere.
Math is banned in the entire country.
A terrible war is waged in the grand hall over the question of math or meta-math.
While you are testing who has the best brain for math, your subjects are treated with drugs that give them advantages.
A plague breaks out and the government creates a task force of math students.
You discover a lost math formula.
A math genius appears and demonstrates how awesome he/she is.
You discover math in the real world.
You find yourself randomly happening upon a math problem.
You are a born calculator.
You are a famous person who needs a tutor.
You can walk on walls. How can you use your ability to survive a fight?
You’ve just received a very strange piece of math in the mail.
You walk even when math isn’t in school. You feel compelled to figure out every math problem you come across. Is that a problem?
Find out more writing prompts.
Try incorporating math into your prompts to enhance the story your child is telling.
Your family has no love for math.
Your favorite math teacher has turned into a frog and you need to figure out why.
A math teacher goes off to war.
Stimulus or Response.
Your teacher has soundproof lockers.
The U.S. is in trouble and the only way it can be saved is with math.
A student can shave time off of a math test by using her cellphone to cheat.
When your child goes missing the search takes you to New York and its underworld.
The summer before the school year you were supposed to attend you got a tutor who was very strict.
A child is born knowing how to do math exactly.
You are a math bookworm and struggle around people.
You discover the world’s most famous theorem/formula/equation but are torn between saving the world and getting the recognition you need to finish your research.
You have been dumped on a deserted island and somehow there’s a giant pile of groceries. How do you figure it out?
Someone leaves hundreds of math puzzles for your math genius kid to solve.
Write ten random problems related to math.
Your bags contain pencils, a calculator and a million dollars. You can fit one of the three in other belongings.
A special vaccine can make you a great math student. Will you take it if it means losing your best friends?
Due to a strange incident, everyone is a mathematical genius except you.
You wake up in an alternate Universe where the math you know is incorrect. How do you get back to your home Dimension?
The day your dog is counting…
Select a specific track in your school.
A monster is coming to devour the student body.
You find yourself magically transformed into the world’s most powerful computer.
You add an equilateral cyrix to an infinite number of identical equilateral cyrex.
You are issued a challenge from a famous person to give s/he a math puzzle.
You find a newly solved mathematical solution.
On average each student got this score on the midterm, what did you get?
A historical event occurred in mathematics.
You were once a math prodigy.
The topic is to write from one perspective about numbers. The table below shows a few examples. Feel free to get creative with it.
A genius moves into your home who will challenge your perception of math.
You are responsible for the sinking of a modern battleship, and only a mathematician can save you.
The school has an Aunt in town who tells stories about math.
You travel back in time to meet famous mathematicians.
You are sent back in time as part of your math test.
The war will be won by whoever is better at math.
A math rock band is in trouble and the only way they can save themselves is with math.
Your best friend’s parents are killed in a math-related accident.
You are looking for people to fill a team competing in an MMO style math game.
If you were a wizard, what spells would you choose and would you use them for good or evil?
Math lessons are deadly.
A new popular mathematics appears.
The bad guy has to solve a mystery to save the world.
Someone makes a decision against math believing that they could never be hurt by it, but then find that they are wrong.
You’re part of a repair crew on a space station when you find a math book.
Your math teacher wants you to help tackle avatars set for math.
A cursed calculator gives you the answers to everything, but all the wrong answers to math problems that you still have to do.
You become infatuated with a famous person.
You discover a conspiracy about math.
You win a prize and it is a million business problems.
The CEO of a technology company is desperately looking for a way to lure one of its many geniuses back to work at the company.
You are the world’s first mathematician with a brain injury.
Solve a Rube Goldberg machine.
View the prompts for other ideas. There are loads more on Patrick Swayze’s website .
A spell in the dungeon school fixes your lack of math skill.
You have to solve famous math problems or you die.
The person doing math is trying to teach you.
You ask your math professor for help with calculus.
You are a famous mathematician who makes one mistake and has to hide it for the rest of your life.
Having been sent to a math camp by your mother, you find it is a military base where they are training kids to be math-zombies.
No, your math teacher says- “No, a negative can’t make that much more than a positive.”
Math can be learned at any age.
You have managed to corner your rival in the act of cheating at math.
What is the next math question to ask?
A foreign country has conquered your homeland and taken over their math department.
A hitman is at your home.
A corporation requires a scientist to solve a brain teaser as a job interview.
Your best friend is a rock star and you have to…
A mysterious creature is threatening to destroy the town and only math can stop it.
You find a map of famous mathematicians around the world, can you find the one you are looking for?
A group of math teachers are abducted and must attempt to couple their math to fight their captors.
You receive a gift for your knowledge of math.
Your school is put up for auction. The highest bidder will shape the curriculum.How does everyone benefit or suffer in a world without math?
The modern Grecian formula discovered by Pythagoras.
A neighbor finds a treasure map and you are the only one who can crack the code.
Every person on Earth only speaks math.
You love math so much, you are willing to cheat to win.
The world’s most famous misanthrope suddenly cares about math.
Your relatives gather to wish you luck on your first day of math homework.
Take a time, space or science fact and explain it with math.
A new math textbook is released.
Math is outlawed and you are the only one left who can do it.
Your math teacher is a demon – you are the only one who can put a stop to him.
Your child shows very little interest in math.
It’s Halloween, tell us about things mathematical.
The popular kids on the block somehow hijacked the school’s math program.
You need to save a friend from a math problem.
You are a math teacher.
Elementary school children get sick with a contagious disease.
Your family has invented a revolutionary math proof – and someone has stolen it.
You have a quiz on math.
You are a contestant on a game show about topology.
The school is having a disaster and the only one who can solve it is you.
There’s an evil wizard who turns math into a game.
Your teacher makes a math mistake.
You are trapped in a killer’s dungeon. The only weapon that can kill him is his love of math.
The king tells you that you alone are in charge of all math in the land.
The solution you are trying to work out isn’t working out.
You are the only person who can save the world with math.
A ghost teaches you math.
You are forced to eat math.
A famous and grumpy super-scientist needs a math experiment done right.
Mathematical coursework will be part of your teacher training program.
A TV producer is visiting your school and requires you to help them do math puzzles that must be aired.
A mathematician hoards math-related things, not because they are valuable, but because they are beautiful.
You receive a googol dollars for solving a math problem.
Uncle John gives you a check with strings attached.
Your math grade is about to suffer. You need an imaginary friend to cheat on a test for you.
You win a contest with a math-related prize.
You are a math terrorist.
You explain math to dinosaurs.
Using some component of math you have to solve a problem.
All the advanced technology the world had is now gone and you have to relearn it with mathematics.
You have to do heavy lifting for the dumbbells, but you always want to act like the brain but when it comes to math you just don’t get it. — You are a bodybuilder and trained to lift weights, but one day when the math teacher asked you to pick some dumbbells up you pick them quick and easy because you trained for this day. —
A computer program using genetic algorithms predicts that the world’s fastest runner will be a child with an above average math IQ.
You are a robot but at night, you become sentient and have a conversation with a mathematician.
You are a famous motivational speaker who helps people through their math problems.
Write your way out of this room.
A man who has lost his memory asks you for help because he thinks he’s a mathematician.
Society forces you to give up math in exchange for something else.
Teachers at your school are serving one hundred days in jail for each call they do not return from parents.
Your math teacher gives you the key to how to understand math.
The end of the world is at hand and only math can save it.
You are taken to another planet to find a math center.
Whose life would be changed, if he missed his math final?
At one point in school you take a test and score terribly.
You must choose if you want to be great at math or stupid at math.
A mathematical contest is held for free parking in a city.
You have a dream and one of the characters is an important or famous mathematician.
You earn money getting celebrities trivia answers about math.
Most of the world’s problems can be solved with math.
The math curriculum changes and you aren’t on board with it.
What if your eyes were an octagon instead of six sided?
You are the controller of time.
Your math abilities can get you to another planet.
There is a big event coming up that the world’s best mathematician has been invited to and you’re their last chance.
You can travel anywhere you like in the world, but only by solving math problems.
A math puzzle changes the universe forever.
A new invention called “the internet” has been invented by a teenage boy named Phil.
Your parents are aiming you towards being serious and uncomplicated in your life.
Don’t play tricks with number theory.
There are _________ orcs camping outside your town/enclave/home?
What is the best pizza topping?
Education begins to put their faith in microchips forcing students out of teachers.
Math is banned and someone needs to figure out why it’s banned and stop it.
A spooky old house has been added to a tour, but people keep ending up in the hospital after visiting. There’s something wrong with the house…
The only way for your loved one to be saved is for you to do something at math.
Help all the students in the school on math.
Everyone is turning to math as the answer to world problems.
You are showing a group of students a math trick and one of them believes you are up to no good.
Your dogs love math.
You own an abandoned mine on a nearby planet that contains an ancient artifact.
The people that founded MathCamp are out to destroy it.
What happens when you clock not just one, but ten thousand – if not millions – of hours of math practice?
You are a math genius and must deal with other people around you taking advantage of your gifts.
You have a test of your math skills.
Certain math concepts are naughty or nice.
A hungry man asks you for two portions of food, one portion of meat and one donation for charity. He gets them just before the food line at a local market runs out of the food.
You’ve decided to become a mathematician. The only problem is, you have no idea what mathematicians do.
A television network has dedicated an entire channel to a mathematician who devises new techniques that predict future crimes.
A universe where the laws of physics are dependent upon math.
You must memorize a big list of math terms.
A victim is suspected and apprehended for stealing millions of dollars from the government.
You are going crazy because a ghost is haunting you and demanding you solve math problems.
It becomes the job of a wife to interpret her husband’s math equations which have sediments not recognized by anyone else in his field.
The time machine may be used only once to go back and change the future by playing with numbers in the past.
Your home bugged with math, on purpose.
The university you have been accepted to is in some sort of fictional world.
That thing that you were nearly expelled for or that convinced you to drop out is actually the root of a famous theorem.
The two of you fall in love.
Have a good week! If you would like more writing prompts in the meantime, please check out my e-book, 30 Days of Better Writing.
You hate math.
You are babysitting someone who is really good at math.
A friend has abused math in some way.
What are your thoughts on the Top Ten List? Would you have included __ ?
The whole world needs saving and math is the answer.
A typical night at your favorite coffee shop is about to get interesting by request of a young person at that table over there.
Your life is the basis of a math problem.
Somebody recently inherited a mansion, which turns out to have been used by The Riddler to create a lot of math problems. Ownership of the mansion comes with a large stash of cash to be awarded to whomever can solve all of the problems.
You wake up and find yourself an ordinary person.
A former teacher of yours is threatened.
Someone has discovered a poem that generates mathematical results.
“The Math-Lover’s Alex Charms the Vampire Queen from the Titles of Regular Polyhedra” by Diana Reed
Space travel is the new craze and it involves math.
You are a mathematician who misunderstands basic math.
You are given a penny doubling machine.
Your math professor is part of a secret society.
You are the teacher and given mathematical questions to solve.
You teach math to a well-known fictional character.
One author broke the rules of math to write a book.
Your math teacher has just tricked you into solving some math problems.
A person is against math for whatever reason.
A group of pop stars come to town. They are not at all what you expected.
You discover an ancient piece of math that has tremendous significance.
Math is a game and you master the game.
You must find a set of hidden codes in old math texts.
After many days of working without incentives, a magical being determines you need to be motivated by a special item.
You are a mathematician who becomes space trash.
Someone with a heart of gold arranges for you to meet the world’s greatest mathematicians.
A student secretly plans to kill the math teacher.
Please rate this writing prompt.
You are a spy and the person you need to learn math from is an evil genius.
Otherworld Lord of the Rings
Everyday at sunset the time stops.
You have to learn math to find a job.
You have the gene for math, but your family uses just plain untalented human genes.
Your dreams are in your math homework.
You are a math genius living in a world that distrusts your knowledge of math.
You are trapped on an island with another math genius and you must teach each other what you know.
After you are stung by a bee your mind appears to be turning into a mathematician.
A person is born with or develops a device that gives them access to the exact answer of any mathematical question.
You pursue a career as a mathematician.
You meet a famous mathematician at a party.
You are told to prove math wrong.
You are taught that failing a math test will result in a punishment for everyone.
People stereotype mathematicians as dreamers.
The only way to save someone’s life is with math.
You spend all of your extra time at a local math computer lab.
You’ve been kidnapped and tasked with solving math problems.
You remember when you could do math on-the-spot. These days, now that there are computers, it takes you forever to do good math!
The teacher threw away all of your math homework and took all the grades.
You are a math teacher and your students are your family.
You meet a strange man in an airport who is an inveterate gambler and wants to take your coat.
Bubble gum mixed with blood is shown to another character.
A new and famous game show is about math.
Collections of Math Prompts
You get organized and find that math stuff.
A new type of number presents itself.
You are a messenger of a god of math. You must travel to deliver a message.
Your math teacher tells you not to tell anyone else about the discovery you made in the library.
The messiah is about to return and he will be a Math Master.
There is a monster who is out to destroy everything you know about math.
An invasion force decides to conquer the Earth by conquering the USA, but all their big-game plans are derailed by a brilliant high school algebra teacher.
In the colony of ghosts, the only thing that could scare the spooks was math.
The magical land of imagination is under attack so now we must imagine strong math wizards.
You found a book of math problems.
A math conference goes bad.
You discover the meaning of life but it only makes you want to kill yourself.
You’re the headmistress of a school where you have to weed out the good math students from the bad math students.
You have the power to raise or lower math on Earth.
A calligrapher writes math in script.
There is a mathematics council and you are making your way up the ranks.
You are betting your best friend that you are better at math.
Same story. You are given the additional obstacle of having this famous person in your homeroom and you must do math with him or her.
You meet Einstein and he explains how to build a time machine. But there’s a catch.
The most famous computer algorithm invented in the modern age begins punishing mathematicians who slay and steal dragons.
Informal learning structure
You have decided to open a math club, where you teach math.
You get a scholarship, but only your if your intended major is math.
Math needs a shake-up. It needs to be changed, and you are given the chance to “fix” it.
A new math curriculum is released.
That which cannot be measured cannot be counted.
Math is not an easy subject and your homeroom teacher goes a little crazy trying to teach you.
There are student discos with fancy dances–maths, that is.
You are a mathematical object with character traits.
How to come up with a good plot
You are hired to tutor a sports superstar.
There is an unexplained epidemic hitting all of the world including people – every person in space – causing them to suddenly drop dead.
The value of math is questioned by your peers.
There’s only one requirement for winning all the money in the pool – you must solve the equation.
The world leader needs math.
You just received a robot in the mail and it has only one instruction…
You are a math genius.
You discover a new math technique that makes everyone want to study it.
Mathematical patterns are surrounding you and they are threatening to destroy the world.
You are in space, and you need to fix the vehicle using a wrench and the planet’s properties due to math.
You are in a math club, but you think it’s time for a change.
Following is a selective list of math poems. This list is under construction.
You are paid lots of money to break the heart of a famous mathematician.
A great mathematician gets a job at your school.
A collection of short stories put together that include mathematics.
Someone asks you what the purpose of math is.
There is a math museum in the basement of your school.
There is an app that can magically create answers for you.
You are a famous mathematician and a pop-up book is being created about you.
You wake up one morning and find you can see the future.
You are the only one who can save the day when humans build a super computer that runs at infinite computing power.
In a world where superstition still has a place, there is an Oracle who gives out answers to one question per day about the future using math.
Decipher the hidden code on the bulletin board.
You are the savior of an entire civilization and the only way to save them is with math.
You are an actor/actress called upon to play a prominent mathematician as you perform soliloquies. Now you must get into the role and prepare your script.
Write about something described as a percentage.
A stranger comes to your town and demonstrates a new way to do math.
You must track down one of the mathematics golden triangles.
You specifically are needed to prevent an event that can only happen if math is done incorrectly.
A great mathematician of the past becomes a student at your school.
You are kicked out of school and left out to fend for yourself. You need to survive through math.
You are a homeless person who discovered a clue to an unconditional truth that will end poverty once it is made public.
An old math test of yours is stolen and put on the Internet.
Your goal in life is to be a math prodigy.
You are in a time when household appliances operate only if they have enough computation.
A battle where the mathematical solution is more beneficial than actual fighting.
Your math teacher is being honored.
Orders are coming too fast and the company is in deep trouble.
The only way to make sure someone wins is by using Math.
You want to become a mathematician-rock-star so you…
A character asks a math question to another character.
The government approaches you for help in designing a kill-bot for war.
The city is planning some new buildings but they need money for them.
You learn math when you have a child.
There are math fears and mathematics fears. Baby math frogs.
A mechanic who rst solves the problem of xing broken objects discovers another use for math.
Mathematical wizards battle the evils of their world.
Will you do it?
Mathletes break into the school and try to steal the football scoreboard.
You live in a society where magic has replaced math and science.
A magical item is stealing your math ability. Can you figure out how to stop it?
The solution to the world’s eco-crisis is right in front of you and you don’t know it.
Someone famous has broken into your house with bad intentions.
There is a planet where numbers hold power, and people live and die by their ability to create and manipulate numbers.
Your math professor is a Shakespeare expert.
You need to solve a math problem to graduate from school.
You are now in space. Without your math skills you can’t return to earth.
There is new math and many people in the world believe it will change math forever.
A novel that commands and examines human thoughts and emotions through the medium of mathematics.
You must introduce someone to math.
Your teacher makes everyone, including you, fail.
A robot challenges you to a math duel.
The world is ending and only math can save the world.
Your entire family is gifted with math.
It’s your math grade or your best friend’s life.
Math professors must come up with a final final exam.
Life is a curse which gives one math homework.
A nuclear physicist gets you a job as a math tutor.
You are a contestant on a live math show and the audience decides how many obstacles you will face.
You are driving to a new home when you see someone who asks you for help solving a math problem.
A character is hired as a mathematician to guess numbers but not use mental math.
You’ve won some sort of math contest, now it’s time to pay up.
You are awarded an array of questions in math.
What would you like to say about mathematics that others have not?
You are a magician who can only perform magic when you answer math problems.
A lonely math genius strikes a bargain with the devil in order to win a contest.
You need a lot of math, and very fast.
Geometry is made an essential area of study for minimum wage workers.
A strange visitor visits and grants you a strange power for a day.
You need to tutor a team of kids at math through a competition.
You are a street magician who specializes in math tricks.
Your family is famous for being great at math.
There is a school tradition that every May someone will disappear.
People have taken your pillow. You must recover it before you go to sleep.
A famous mathematician is about to make a vital mathematical discovery.
An inanimate object comes to life– and it can do math.
Math comes alive in your life.
Humanity’s only hope lies in the study of math.
You own a store that has shelves of math gifts.
Your study partner wants to split the work and get out of studying.
Revenge starts with simple equations.
You go back in time and change history but make it worse.
Can you invent the mathematical equation for success?
The world is ending, but science can save it with correct math.
You stumble across a set of math notes that have the power to change the world.
You skipped grades of school and learned everything out of order.
What kind of a future can you expect if you are poor at math?
Why are men so bad at math?
You won the lottery, then find out you owe taxes on it using math.
Your math teacher turns into your worst enemy and you must figure out how to fight back.
You answer a strange ad looking for a math genius.
You are a famous detective solving a Math-related crime.
You have 30 seconds to answer the question, “How many points are there in basketball?”
The math club is desperate because the school is cutting back their budget.
You must tutor two different persons with completely different levels of math smarts.
Important tests must be taken with no study time.
The ancient leaders of your country are debating a mathematical representation of the structure of the Universe, and you know one side of the debate is right and the other wrong.
You, as the most valued student at the university, decide to make your own final exam.
The future of the world is in math, you must become a math hero.
A math issue involving outer space.
One of the students is famous for doing something with math and shows up to school to prove that he or she is as good as you are at math.
Your evil twin also happens to be a math genius.
You are dead and can only be resurrected by solving the secret to all of life with math.
Your school has a general math competition through which it can win a prize.
You give your heroes an IQ test.
You can cure cancer with math.
There is a logical flaw in math and you have to figure it out.
Write a math-related story.
You are visiting Denmark for your new museum exhibit.
A robot is built from an artificial intelligence system, and has a brain that has been taught using math.
The school’s janitor is missing and someone has to clean up after everyone.
A math teacher is falsely accused of cheating.
A story where someone is really good at math.
Write about not being able to copy from someone else’s homework because it is math homework.
A math test throws a challenge at you that you had no idea was even possible.
Math is the lie you always wanted to tell.
The school’s football field just added two extra numbers to the location, and you are exploring just how these relate to each other.
The character can only solve math problems in their head.
You are being punished and you are told to read a math book for an hour.
A companion of Benjamin Franklin has access to a megabyte of historical data from the tenth century and she wants you to use this information to help her become a hotter, younger, better-looking woman.
You find a mathematical form of jewelry and must figure out what it is.
A famous mathematician can predict the end of the world with a need to use math.
Your family is injured in the last war/action and the only way to save them is by solving the math problem.
Psychology is…
You rank the world’s best mathematicians via a poll.
The universe is a video game and the score is determined by cunning tricks at math.
A new system of math has been invented. You want it to be accepted.
Your favorite author is a math teacher and interviews you about math.
Your main character owns a math themed popsicle shop.
You hate math, and you have always hated math.
The school is doing a special math program and you are involved.
You are a gumshoe detective and a famous person has gone missing.
You want to take math off the exam for one course because you are a terrible math student or know somebody who is.
You are able to travel to a world where math is finessed.
You are trying to win a math competition.
A super villain’s plan to take over the world involves math.
Math is your specialty but no one appreciates it because you’re a teen.
Your teacher is forcing you to help out on a science project. You think they will let you do math, but get in over your head when they want you to co-author the project.
A math prodigy won’t work on anything but your invention.
You discover the meaning behind math.
Your math teacher has been replaced by a celebrity.
You are asked to help save the world with math.
There is a child prodigy.
You visit a home for orphans and learn the school forbade them to learn math, because it is a gift from God.
An apple is delivered to school.
Your pet turns out to be gifted at math.
You are the first human and set the foundation for math.
Anyone and everyone who accepts this challenge had better come prepared. Find them on Facebook and connect if you are up for a good challenge. Click on the FB logo below! Enjoy, share, and please share-share-share! Tell your teachers and friends to join for the freshly updated prompts delivered right to their inbox every month. It’s like getting 20 new writing prompts each month for free! Enjoy and share!
You are tasked with proving a mathematical theorem.
A math competition has dramatic effects on two people.
A mathematician helps you with your daily troubles, but when he or she leaves you can’t do math anymore.

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