Math Puzzles and Teasers by Martin Gardner
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Overview: A collection of 15 books collecting Martin Gardner’s famous, educational, and witty mathematical puzzles, posers, and games from Gardner’s "Mathematical Recreations" columns in Scientific American, plus an interview with Martin Gardner and a tribute volume with still more math puzzles and problems. These are in commercial-quality PDF with all illustrations.
Genre: Educational
Hexaflexagons and Other Mathematical Diversions
This revision of a 1959 title offers schools a wonderful collection of reprinted articles from Scientific American with afterwords to bring the topics up to date. Math students and puzzle nuts will appreciate this assortment, which ranges from the hexaflexagons of the title to tic-tac-toe to card tricks and their mathematical explanations.
The Second Scientific American Book of Mathematical Puzzles and Diversions
This delightful collection from the magician of math introduces readers to magic squares, the Generalized Ham Sandwich Theorem, origami, digital roots, an update of the Induction Game of Eleusis, Dudeney puzzles, the maze at Hampton Court palace, and many more mathematical puzzles and principles.
New Mathematical Diversions
Martin Gardner instructs us about mathematics as he entertains us with his wit and sense of the absurd. He stimulates, challenges, and delights his readers. Answers are provided for problems, as well as references for further reading and a bibliography. The Postscript provides updates to the problems.
The Unexpected Hanging and Other Mathematical Diversions
There is nothing like a good paradox to sharpen the wits. The title selection from this collection of Martin Gardners’ Mathematical Recreations columns from Scientific American is one of the better paradoxes that you will find. The solution is surprisingly easy, once the proper approach is taken. The other entries are also vintage Gardner, who has no equal in the accurate rendition of mathematical curiosa. Other topics include gambling fallacies, a church of the fourth dimension, games and systems that learn by experience. There are also thirty-seven catch questions in a final chapter that are definitely groaners.
Sixth Book of Mathematical Games from Scientific American
Helices, Klein Bottles, Combinatorial Theory, Bouncing Balls in Polygons and Polyhedrons, Unusual Board Games, the Rigid Square, Sliding-Blocks, Parity Checks, Patterns and Primes. Graph Theory, the Ternary System, a Trip around the Moon, Helen of Geometry, Mathematical Magic Tricks, Coleridge’s Apples, O’Gara, the Mathematical Mailman, and much more. Presented by the master magician of mathematics, Martin Gardner, with charm and wit from his popular Scientific American columns. Both educational and wittily entertaining.
Mathematical Carnival
A new round-up of tantalizers and puzzles from Scientific American. Includes: Sprouts and Brussels Sprouts, Magic Stars and Polyhedrons, the Art of M.C. Escher, Card Shuffles, Mrs. Perkins’ Quilt, The Numerology of Dr. Fliess, and much more, presented by the master of entertainining mathematical education, Martin Gardner.
Mathematical Magic Show
More puzzles, games, diversions, illusions and other mathematical sleight-of-mind from Martin Gardners’ "Mathematical Recreations" columns from Scientific American. Includes: Nothing. More Ado About Nothing, Game Theory, Guess It, Foxholes, Factorial Oddities, The Cocktail Cherry, Double Acrostics, Playing Cards, Finger Arithmetic, Möbois Bands, and more.
Mathematical Circus
The twenty chapters of this book are nicely balanced between all sorts of stimulating ideas, suggested by down-to-earth objects like match sticks and dollar bills as well as by faraway objects like planets and infinite random walks. We learn about ancient devices for arithmetic and about modern explanations of artificial intelligence. There are feasts here for the eyes and hands as well as for the brain.
The Magic Numbers of Dr. Matrix
The Magic Numbers of Dr. Matrix draws us into the intriguing and fascinating world of numbers and number theory. "Numbers, you know, have a mysterious life of their own. It would be naive," claims Dr. Matrix, "to suppose that there is such a thing as a randomly arranged group of symbols." Consider, for example, the decimal expansion of pi. Long considered a random series, it is actually rich with remarkable patterns. "Correctly interpreted," says Dr. Matrix, "pi conveys the entire history of the human race." Dr. Matrix uncovers patterns and signs that will astound you. As Dr. Matrix demonstrates, we need only look to find clues all around us in number and language "coincidences" that will unlock the mysteries of the universe.
Wheels, Life and Other Mathematical Amusements
"Martin Gardner is an amateur magician, but, putting in the shade all his sleight-of-hand, is the magic whereby he can take any mathematical subject and make it impossible for me to stop reading till he stops writing- whether I know anything about the subject to begin with or not. And when he does stop, I complain. In WHEELS, the prestidigistating master is better than ever."–Isaac Asimov
Knotted Doughnuts and Other Mathematical Entertainments
Introduces puzzles and math problems involving coincidence, ciphers, games, the I Ching, geometric figures, and paradoxes. Highlights finclude: Coincidence, Newcomb’s Paradox, Crossing Numbers, Elevators and Doughnuts, Linked and Knotted. Also worthy of special mention are Gardner’s essays on Napier’s Bones and Napier’s Abacus, and that on Waring’s Problems, one of those classes of number problems that are easy to describe and incredibly challenging to approach to even the best number theorists. And there’s a final gem, printed out of sequence — Gardner’s final column for Scientific American that tears to shreds the nonsense behind many economic theories but most specifically that behind the Laffer Curve. The controlled rage of a man angry at seeing a nation being destroyed by pseudo-science has rarely been better expressed and is a remarkable contrast to the joy of discovery and invention that is usually seen in his columns.
Time Travel and Other Mathematical Bewilderments
From coincidences that seem to violate the laws of time and space, to the perplexities of the rubber rope, to the centuries-old delights of tangram play, the puzzles, problems, and paradoxes presented in Time Travel and Other Mathematical Bewilderments reveal just how enlightening and entertaining mathematical recreations can be. Gardner has assembled an absorbing discussion on the theoretical aspects and possibility of time travel, including the many paradoxes that may arise; two problem collections to give to try out yourself and give to your friends; two chapters on tangrams and tiling each; along with 15 more chapters on interesting topics such as the melody-making machines, anamorphic art, block packing and more. Particularly interesting are the chapters "Six Sensational Discoveries" and "Dodgem and Other Simple Games." The former is a collection of six April Fool’s jokes he published in April of 1975. The latter is an extensive and occupying discussion of simple games that one can play with friends, along with winning strategies for some and just mathematical theories for others.
Penrose Tiles to Trapdoor Ciphers
Another collection drawn from Martin Gardner’s "Mathematical Recreations" columns from Scientific American. Each chapter explores a different theme, for example fractals, surreal numbers, the sculptures of Berrocal, tiling the plane, Ramsey theory and code breaking, all combining to create a rich diet of recreational mathematics. Most chapters can be readily understood by the uninitiated: at each turn there are challenges for the reader and a wealth of references for further reading. Gardner’s clarity of style and ability systematically to simplify the complex make this an excellent vehicle in which to start or continue an interest in recreational mathematics.
Fractal Music, Hypercards, and More
A collection of informative extracts from Martin Gardner’s "Mathematical Recreations" columns from Scientific American. Each brain-teasing article has been updated to include new twists, new ideas, and new solutions. Highlights include two new chapters–one on pi and poetry, one on minimal sculpture–and intriguing forays into time reversal, forms of fractions and magic, and an imaginary "Math Zoo" with its own publication, ZOO-NOOZ.
The Last Recreations, Hydras, Eggs, and Other Mathematical Mystifications
Of all of Martin Gardner’s writings, none gained him a wider audience or was more central to his reputation than his "Mathematical Recreations" columns from Scientific American, which virtually defined the genre of popular mathematics writing for a generation. Flatland, Hydras and Eggs: Mathematical Mystifications will be the final collection of these columns, covering a period roughly from 1979 to Gardner’s retirement as a regular columnist in 1986. The notable trend over Gardner’s career is the increasing sophistication of the mathematics he has been able to translate into his famously lucid prose. These columns show him at the top of his form and are not to be missed by anyone with an interest in mathematics. As always in his published collections, Gardner includes letters received from mathematicians and other commenting on the ideas presented in the columns.
The Mathematician and the Pied Puzzler: A Collection in Tribute to Martin Gardner
A bonus volume!
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