Synopses & Reviews
A compulsive, exuberant cornucopia of puzzles,
The Big Book of Brain Games is like salted peanuts for the mind. Here are mental games, visual challenges, logic posers, riddles and illusions.
Comprised of both original puzzles and mind-boggling adaptations of classics, this book, written by a man Wired magazine called “a living inspiration for the rest of us,” celebrates that unique place where pure play and problem solving coexist.
Start solving, and right away youll feel smart, intuitive, curious, successful and at one with the beauty of mathematics.
Review
and#8220;An opusand#8230;Mixing math with wonder.and#8221;and#8212;Washington Post Book World
Review
“An opus…Mixing math with wonder.”—Washington Post Book World The Washington Post
Review
“An opus…Mixing math with wonder.”—Washington Post Book World
Synopsis
About the original 1000 PlayThinks, Will Shortz of "The New York Times" said it best: “ The most wide-ranging, visually appealing, entertaining, gigantic collection of brainteasers since Sam Loyd’ s "Cyclopedia of Puzzles" almost a century ago.” Inside "The Big Book of Brain Games," you will find an obsessive collection of 1,000 challenges, puzzles, riddles, illusions— originals as well as must-do classics— it’ s like salted peanuts for the brain. With jampacked pages and a full-color illustration for each entry, the book, opened anywhere, is a call to action. (And it’ s guaranteed to make you smarter.) Twelve basic categories include Geometry, Patterns, Numbers, Logic and Probability, and Perception. An easy-to-read key at the top of each game ranks its difficulty on a scale of 1 to 10, while indices in the back cross-reference the puzzles. (You’ ll find the answers back there, too.)
About the Author
Ivan Moscovich is an internationally known and acclaimed inventor, puzzler, and artist. He has designed award-winning toys for Mattel, Kenner, Childcraft, Ravensburger, Binary Arts, and other companies, and is the author of the MindGames series and other books. Mr. Moscovich lives in the Netherlands. A graduate of Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, Ian Stewart has reported from more than 40 countries. At the age of twenty-seven, he was appointed bureau chief of UPI's South Asia bureau. He later joined the Associated Press and was named bureau chief of its West Africa bureau in 1998. He lives in Berkeley, California.
Table of Contents
Foreword
Introduction
How to Use This Book
Chapter 1: Thinking about PlayThinks
Chapter 2: Geometry
Chapter 3: Points and Lines
Chapter 4: Graphs and Networks
Chapter 5: Curves and Circles
Chapter 6: Shapes and Polygons
Chapter 7: Patterns
Chapter 8: Dissections
Chapter 9: Numbers
Chapter 10: Logic and Probability
Chapter 11: Topology
Chapter 12: Science
Chapter 13: Perception
Chapter 14: Bonus Round
Solutions
References
Difficulty Index