Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
"This book may well be the best collection of mind-stretching teasers ever assembled. You can't help but be inspired, when Peter winks at you."
- Donald E. Knuth, Emeritus Professor at Stanford University and winner of Turing Award
"This is an incredible collection of puzzles. While many books claim to be 'for all levels, ' here it is really true: the range of problems is truly remarkable. There are simple ones for teens and pre-teens, right up to ones for grown-ups. All of the book is written in Peter Winkler's trademark fun and chatty style. I do not know any book with such a spread."
- Imre Leader, Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University and 12-time winner of the Othello National Championship
"A fantastic collection of mathematical puzzles The clever, elegant, and surprising solutions should bring a sense of wonder and pleasure to all mathematicians."
- Richard Stanley, Emeritus Professor of Applied Mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
"Peter Winkler is a wizard He transforms the latest results in mathematics and computer science into enticing puzzles. The solutions are Eureka moments for all."
- Joel H. Spencer, Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences
"This is the third and by far the most substantial of Peter Winkler's books on mathematical puzzles, drawing from everyday life and from a wide spectrum of mathematical topics. Mathematics' answer to Ripley's Believe It or Not, Peter brings out the romantic side of mathematics rather than its utilitarian side. It is sincerely hoped that his trilogy will contain more than three volumes."
- Andy Liu, Emeritus Professor at University of Alberta and 2000 and 2003 leader of the Canadian International Mathematical Olympiad Team
Research in mathematics is much more than solving puzzles, but most people will agree that solving puzzles is not just fun: it helps focus the mind and increases one's armory of techniques for doing mathematics. Mathematical Puzzles will, for the first time, make the connection explicit by isolating important mathematical methods, then using them to solve puzzles and prove a theorem.
Features
A collection of the world's best mathematical puzzles
Each chapter features a technique for solving mathematical puzzles, examples, and finally a genuine theorem of mathematics that features that technique in its proof
Puzzles that are entertaining, mystifying, paradoxical, and satisfying; they are not just exercises or contest problems.
Peter Winkler is the William Morrill Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at Dartmouth College, and for 2019-2020, the Distinguished Visiting Professor for the Public Dissemination of Mathematics at the National Museum of Mathematics. He is the author of 160 research papers, a dozen patents, two previous puzzle books, a book on cryptographic techniques in the game of bridge, and a portfolio of compositions for ragtime piano.