Synopses & Reviews
Bizarre imagination, originality, trickiness, and whimsy characterize puzzles of Sam Loyd, America's greatest puzzler. Present selection from fabulously rare Cyclopedia includes the famous 1415 puzzles, the Horse of a Different Color, and 115 others in various areas of elementary math. 150 period line drawings.
Synopsis
Bizarre, original, whimsical puzzles by America's greatest puzzler. Elementary math. 150 illus.
Synopsis
Bizarre imagination, originality, trickiness, and whimsy characterize puzzles of Sam Loyd, America's greatest puzzler. Present selection from fabulously rare Cyclopedia. 150 period line drawings.
About the Author
Martin Gardner was a renowned author who published over 70 books on subjects from science and math to poetry and religion. He also had a lifelong passion for magic tricks and puzzles. Well known for his mathematical games column in
Scientific American and his "Trick of the Month" in
Physics Teacher magazine, Gardner attracted a loyal following with his intelligence, wit, and imagination.
Martin Gardner: A Remembrance
The worldwide mathematical community was saddened by the death of Martin Gardner on May 22, 2010. Martin was 95 years old when he died, and had written 70 or 80 books during his long lifetime as an author. Martin's first Dover books were published in 1956 and 1957: Mathematics, Magic and Mystery, one of the first popular books on the intellectual excitement of mathematics to reach a wide audience, and Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science, certainly one of the first popular books to cast a devastatingly skeptical eye on the claims of pseudoscience and the many guises in which the modern world has given rise to it. Both of these pioneering books are still in print with Dover today along with more than a dozen other titles of Martin's books. They run the gamut from his elementary Codes, Ciphers and Secret Writing, which has been enjoyed by generations of younger readers since the 1980s, to the more demanding The New Ambidextrous Universe: Symmetry and Asymmetry from Mirror Reflections to Superstrings, which Dover published in its final revised form in 2005.
To those of us who have been associated with Dover for a long time, however, Martin was more than an author, albeit a remarkably popular and successful one. As a member of the small group of long-time advisors and consultants, which included NYU's Morris Kline in mathematics, Harvard's I. Bernard Cohen in the history of science, and MIT's J. P. Den Hartog in engineering, Martin's advice and editorial suggestions in the formative 1950s helped to define the Dover publishing program and give it the point of view which — despite many changes, new directions, and the consequences of evolution — continues to be operative today.
In the Author's Own Words:
"Politicians, real-estate agents, used-car salesmen, and advertising copy-writers are expected to stretch facts in self-serving directions, but scientists who falsify their results are regarded by their peers as committing an inexcusable crime. Yet the sad fact is that the history of science swarms with cases of outright fakery and instances of scientists who unconsciously distorted their work by seeing it through lenses of passionately held beliefs."
"A surprising proportion of mathematicians are accomplished musicians. Is it because music and mathematics share patterns that are beautiful?" — Martin Gardner
Table of Contents
Arithmetic and Algebraic Problems
Two Turkeys
Bixley to Quixley
Dickering at Manilla
What Was the Profit?
The Bargain Sale
The Cat and Dog Race
The Man with the Hoe
Trading Chickens
The Chess Playing Colonel
Uncle Sam's Fob Chain
The Eccentric Teacher
Tug O' War Puzzle
The Three Brides
A Problem in Diamonds and Rubies
Missing Numbers
The Mathematical Cop
The Time Problems
School of Sea Serpents
"Cow, Goat, and Goose"
Weighing the Baby
Multiplication and Addition
The Squarest Game on the Beach
The Saint Patrick's Day Parade
The Missing Pennies
Stamps for a Dollar
The Oracle Puzzle
The Yacht Race
The Battle of Hastings
Mixed Teas
False Weights
Grandfather's Problem
A Puzzling Mixture
The Stenographer's Salary
Tell Mother's Age
The Pistol Match
The Strange Building Loan Plan
The Bottle Problem
Count the Votes
The Dutchmen's Wives
Domestic Complications
The Crazy Clock of Zurich
How Old Will Smith Be?
Puzzling Scales
Heard at the Zoo
Annual Picnic
The Convent Problem
The Fighting Fishes of Siam
The Chinese Cash Puzzle
Butcher Boy
Probability and Game Theory Problems
Carnival Dice Game
Chickens in the Corn
The Great Pool Puzzle
Puzzleland Races
Lord Rosslyn's System
The Great Columbus Problem
The Golf Puzzle
The Boxer's Puzzle
The Potato Race Puzzle
The Mixed-up Hats
Operations Research Problems
The Four Elopements
The Necklace Puzzle
The Moonshiners of Puzzleland
The Quarrelsome Couples
The Hod Carrier's Problem
Primitive Railroading
The Merchant of Bagdad
Plane Geometry Problems
The New Star
The Grindstone Puzzle
The Hidden Star
The Gold Brick Puzzle
The Lily Problem
The Lake Puzzle
The Three Napkins
Free Acres
The Danish Flag Puzzle
Geometrical Dissection Problems
Good Luck
The Sedan Chair Puzzle
The Hoop-Snake Puzzle
The Red Cross Lassie Puzzle
Mrs. Pythagoras' Puzzle
The Joiner's Problem
The Pony Puzzle
The Battle of the Four Oaks
A Battle Royal
Puzzle of the Red Spade
The Patch Quilt Puzzle
The Guido Mosaics
The Smart Alec Puzzle
The Young Carpenter's Puzzle
The Moon Problem
The Gingerbread Dog
The Cheese Problem
The Chinese Puzzle
"Route, Tracing, and Topological Problems"
Bicycle Tour
In Ancient Greece
The Bridges of Konigsberg
Military Tactics
Going into Action
The Canals on Mars
Back from the Klondike
The Quarrelsome Neighbors
The Boxer's Puzzle
Heclai's Path
Alice in Wonderland
The Gordian Knot
Counter and Sliding Block Problems
Fore and Aft Puzzle
Martha's Vineyard
The 14-15 Puzzle
A Chinese Switch-Word Puzzle
After Dinner Tricks
Duck Shooting at Buzzard's Bay
Crows in the Corn
Solid Geometry Problems
The Plumber's Problem
The Old Beacon Tower
The Football Problem
Plato's Cubes
The Deadwood Express
The Cheese Problem