Description
Book SynopsisThe tradition of honoring Martin Gardner continues with this edited collection of articles by those who have been inspired by Gardner to enter mathematics, to enter magic, to bring magic into their mathematics, or to bring mathematics into their magic. Contributing authors include world-leading puzzle designers, puzzle collectors, mathematicians, and magicians.
The variety of articles includes card or magic tricks (with a mathematical trick behind them), the history behind given puzzles, mathematically interesting objects involving the number seven, and puzzles for the reader to solve. Specific puzzles discussed include tangram, 14-15 Puzzle, seven-coloring of the torus, packing circles, Crazy Elephant Dance, and more!
Trade ReviewThe final section tells the stories of how various mathematical games were invented, and if you are a fan of them gives many that you might not have heard of before. ... whether you are interested in puzzles, origami or card tricks, it has them all. ... If you are bored with doing Sudoku and fancy reading about games of a similar ilk, then this is the book for you.
—Simon Craik, London Mathematical Society, May 2010
... Over two-thirds of the book consists of nineteen articles on puzzles and games ... these involve quite a spread of mathematics, including dissections, knots, Hamiltonian circuits, paper folding, groups and coding, along with a little philosophy.
—E. J. Barbeau, Mathematical Reviews, July 2010
Table of ContentsHistory and Hoaxes: Sam Loyd’s Most Successful Hoax. Numbers and Shapes: The Seven-Colored Torus. A Property of Complete Symbols. Seven-Fold Symmetry in Mathematica(l) Graphics and Physical Models. Seven Knots and Knots in the Seven-Color Map. Seven from the Sea. Seven Staggering Sequences. Seven Water Lilies. Puzzles and Games: Developing the Transmission Puzzle. Triple-7 Hamiltonian Chess. Retrolife. The Logologicomathemagical 7 7 Puzzle. Seven Roads to Roam: A Magical Journey. Fractal Tilings Based on Dissections. Creating the NAVIGATI Puzzle. Crazy Elephant Dance. The Two Ovals-to-Table Story. Folding Regular Heptagons. Combinatorial Philosophy. Variations of the 14-15 Puzzle. Pentomino Battleships. Horses in the Stream and Other Short Stories. A Potpourri of Polygonal and Polyhedral Puzzles. The Hexa-Dodeca-Flexagon. Golomb, Gardner, Benjamin and Jones: Midwives to a Puzzle. Walk, Slide, and Jump. Polyomino Number Theory Developments.
