Synopses & Reviews
Of all of Martin Gardners writings, none gained him a wider audience or was more central to his reputation than his Mathematical Recreations column in Scientific American - which virtually defined the genre of popular mathematics writing for a generation. Flatland, Hydras and Eggs: Mathematical Mystifications is the final collection of these columns, covering the period roughly from 1979 to Gardners retirement in 1986. As always in his published collections, Gardner includes letters commenting on the ideas presented in his articles. These columns show him at the top of his form and should not be missed by anyone with an interest in mathematics.
Synopsis
More than any of his other writing, Martin Gardner's Mathematical Recreations column in Scientific American cemented his reputation as America's premier writer on recreational mathematics and set the standard for the genre. The Last Recreations collects Gardner's columns from the last seven years before his retirement from the magazine in 1986.
Synopsis
Martin Gardner's Mathematical Recreations columns in Scientific American virtually defined the genre of popular mathematics writing for a generation. In this, the final collection of these columns, covering the few years before his retirement from the magazine in 1986, he once again uses his famously lucid style to bring cutting- edge mathematical ideas within the grasp of the lay reader. This book will delight Gardner's legions of fans as well as anyone with an interest in mathematics.
Table of Contents
Wonders of the Planiverse.- Bulgarian Solitaire and Other Seemingly Endless Tasks.- Fun with Eggs.- Fun with Eggs.-The Topology of Knots. M-Pire Maps.- Directed Graphs and Cannibals.- Dinner Guests, Schoolgirls, and Handcuffed Prisoners.- The Monster and Other Sporadic Groups.- Taxicab Geometry.- The Power of the Pigeonhole.- Strong Laws of Small Primes.- Checker Recreations.- Checker Recreations.- Modulo Arithmetic and Hummer's Witch.- Lavinia's Room and Other Problems.- The Symmetry Art of Scott Kim.- Parabolas.- Non-Euclidian Geometry.- Voting Mathematics.- A Toroidal Paradox and Other Problems.- Minimal Steiner Trees.- Trivalent Graphs, Snarks, and Boojums.