My Best Mathematical and Logic Puzzles (Dover Recreational Math) (Dover Math Games & Puzzles)

I am really enjoying this short book of Martin Gardner's best logic and mathematical puzzles written for his Scientific American column. The problems range widely in difficulty, with some requiring only a few moments of reflection and other laying quite beyond my cognitive powers. The problems are entertainingly presented. Answers are provided in the back of the book; actually, more than half the length of the book is the answers section. Some readers have complained that the answers are inadequate, but I have not found this to be so. Gardner engages in name dropping, particularly in the answers section, probably to add glamour to his column. He will sometimes note "Two Harvard physics students wrote in with this solution," or "John Campbell of Astounding suggested this solution". Campbell was the famous editor who first published Asimov, Heinlein and Van Vogt, inaugurating the "Golden Age" of Science Fiction. Evidently he was smart in lots of ways! It gives a sense of group endeavor, as if everyone is working these problems. The book is short, but well worth the extremely cheap price from Dover. I wondered while reading this book whether American society as it currently exists would be capable of creating a figure like Martin Gardner. His closest analog might be the conservative columnist John Derbyshire, who is really of English provenance. While Gardner's skill set is technical in nature, I would place his work in the entertainment bracket, sort of a sweet by-product of our technico/literary education system. I'm not sure whether puzzles and brain teasers are strictly entertainment, or if they might serve a purpose similar to weight-lifting and conditioning to the athlete. No one has ever filled Gardner's shoes at Scientific American. The reason I fear is that the American education system and the general spiritual impetus of our culture as it now stands are not able to instill the simultaneous virtues in one individual. Of course, Gardner served no essential purpose--most people get by without challenging brain teasers-- but philosophically the question is worth pondering.

A math professor turned bartender, now working at the Bar of Philosophy, serves up three shots respectively of logic, probability, and geometry whiskey... and you have to drink them all at once. If that's your style, this is your book.

My brain was feeling a bit fuzzy, and figured it was time to start giving my aging bean a workout. I decided to research and add in some thinking challenges via puzzles, games, and word problems. I bought this book by Martin Gardner because I am already a fan of his. I love how he appreciates the sciences and skepticism. He had a long history of creating recreational math problems for the every day person to challenge themselves with. These aren't necessarily difficult, but some are a big challenge. It takes some time to readjust ones thinking in order to work through some of these. HENCE, a brain workout-- especially if not used to thinking along these lines. If you are, then this is just a fun maintenance activity. I ended up buying various books and hands on puzzles for myself, then bought duplicates to make a really neat gift basket. I included stuff like Sudoku, crosswords, search a words, then more complicated stuff including this book and some hands on puzzles. Great for just about anyone.

The puzzles are great. However, it is tedious in the kindle edition to navigate from the puzzle to the answer. I believe the paper version may be more convenient for this book.

If you like math and want to train your brain, this book is good.

For a couple that met in math class and later married, the puzzles in this book make for fun reading/discussing on the couch in the evening. yup. we're nerds. Fun way to pass the time, exercise your brain, or challenge your friends! Some great mathematics in here, accessible to the average thinker.

I have not had enough time with the book yet to properly review it. I bought it for my 8 year old son who loves math and games. The first thing to notice is that unike other books, the text and graphics in this book are very nice and clear. That is very important when you are trying to concentrate and learn, especially for a younger person. There is another part of the books with answers, they clearly explain every problem in pretty good detail. It is a good mix of puzzles. I recommend this book, will post a better review later.

It's an amazing book

Each puzzle is fun and requires logical thinking to solve it. Another good part is that the solutions given also forces you to think a bit and is a kind of description which will add this extra thing to a question. This book is collection of those puzzle which will let you think intuitively.

Martin Gardner war Wissenschaftsjournalist, größte Bekanntheit erreichte er mit seiner Kolumne 'Mathematical Games' im 'Scientific American', die er 25 Jahre ab 1957 verfasste; monatlich stellte er hier allgemein verständliche, spannende mathematische Themen vor, die stets in irgend einer Form überraschend Momente enthielten – Unterhaltungs- Mathematik in besten Sinn des Wortes. Darunter waren auch mathematische Spiele, wie 'Life' (Oktober 1970) von John Conway, der Gardners Leidenschaft für Puzzle und Spiele teilte, und den Puzzle- Großmeister verehrte. Aller sechs Monate widmete der Autor die Kolumne mathematischen Puzzeln oder Rätseln – er war dabei stets bemüht, neue interessante Aufgaben, die noch in keiner bekannten Sammlung enthalten waren, zu veröffentlichen. Das vorliegende Bändchen enthält eine Auswahl von 66 diese Probleme, darunter auch alt bekannte Klassiker, oder Varianten davon, etwa: die Reise des Polarforschers, die Überdeckung eines angesägten Schachbretts mit Dominosteinen, oder eine Version des Lügner Dilemmas; aber auch neue vertrackte Aufgaben sind darunter. Allen gemeinsam ist, dass zu ihrer Lösung weniger aufwendige Mathematik notwendig ist, als viel mehr ein wacher logischer Geist, der auch mal ausgetreten Pfade verlassen, und 'um die Ecke' denken kann. Das Büchlein ist liebevoll arrangiert, das Inhaltsverzeichnis listet alle Rätsel mit Namen, der Seite der Aufgabe und die der Lösung auf. Die Antworten sind ausführlich und vollständig, oft mit illustrierenden Skizzen, meist fügt der Autor auch noch einige Bemerkungen über die Geschichte des Problems und seiner Varianten an; das macht das Nachschlagen der Lösung auch dann lohnend, wenn man die Sache selbst herausgefunden hat.

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Pour certains, les maths sont un jeu... Well, you'd better have a REAL passion for mathematics to get interested in this !

Very interesting book, really like it